Before The Snow Falls
by gaara'sonmymind
Summary: Her clumsiness was hard to forget, and her smile was as pretty as the sun beaming into the ocean. She always seemed to be happy, when she was just hiding her indignant side. [UraharaxOC] PLEASE R&R!
1. Chapter 1 Ivory Snow, Ebony Spirit

**Before The Snow Falls**

**Disclaimer – **I do not own Bleach in anyway shape or form. If I did, than I would not make the whole story about Ichigo and his escapades in the Soul society, but about Urahara, all day and all night. But, I do not own Bleach, Tite Kubo does, and he decides what goes on.

**P.S. –** I am only in the tenth book of Bleach, and I also am up to the episodes that are shown on Adult Swim. If I get something wrong about the Soul Society, or I just say something that there is no possible way this can happen, then just forget it, cause this is fan fiction people. Also, soul reapers have emotions, and a person who can see a soul reaper can touch them. (In my story that is, just trying to clear some things up. To lazy to go through the gigai junk since that would be awkward in future situations, and no that means no lemons you people out there who are reading this.) Also, it seems I am one of those lucky ones to have a Kisuke OC.

First Bleach fanfic. Enjoy.

**Chapter 1**

**Ivory Snow, Ebony Spirit**

Noon came among the town of Karakura, and everything was quiet on this slow moving winter day. Last nights snow lay on the ground, and already kids had made snowmen and had their snowball fights. Houses were literally covered in snow, so much, that it was amazing people haven't cleaned off their roofs yet so they wouldn't cave in. To actually mention that, the Urahara Shouten had been closed because of the snow actually making the weak roof creek.

"URURU! YOU DO IT!"

"But…Jinta…Mr. Urahara said you had to help."

Ururu was now almost literally getting no help from Jinta who was climbing down the ladder that lead to the top of the roof. They were both covered in warm clothing, and the temperature seemed to be lowering, making Ururu even colder then she already was.

"Jinta…"

No answer came, but just a sound of the door closing to the shouten. Little mumbles of voices and then screaming of Jinta came soon after.

"Tessai! I don't want to! Come on! Ururu can do it!"

"Mr. Urahara may not be here, but you were strictly told to clean that roof."

Jinta was getting held by the collar of his shirt, which said Urahara Shouten across it. Tessai lifted the little boy with ease, and since he was taller then some normal men, he was able to literally place Jinta on the roof without a ladder or item to increase his height. Ururu had almost finished with her half of the roof, but she still had a deep feeling that Jinta would force her to do his part when Tessai left.

"Mr. Urahara should be back in about an hour. You two better finish this before he gets back."

They both knew that, but Kisuke was such a unserious man, that all he did for punishment was chase them around the house with his cane flaying everywhere trying to hit them, but soon he just stops, and laughs about it. He always fooled around, and never was real serious for long. Nor even if he was serious, he would turn back to normal in about a minute, or until the person who made him serious left the room.

"Not like he would notice Tessai!"

Jinta had begun to take out anger as he just plowed through the snow, letting it fly across the air, and landing it all on top of Tessai making the large look like a over done snow man. Ururu had came down from the roof, and watched as Jinta still had been doing this for about a couple of more minutes.

"See, Jinta, was that so hard?"

He huffed and ignored the ladder and then just jumped off, and landed in a kneeling position. His hands suddenly felt a cold chill and he looked down to see even more snow flakes falling.

"Oh come on!"

"Uh…don't worry about it, Jinta. It is just a light snow; it won't cause as much snow fall as it did last night. Don't overreact."

_Easy for him to say, he doesn't have to clean a roof. _

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

On the other hand, Kisuke was just walking peacefully down the streets of Karakura, and he just paid no mind to the world around him, as usual. He skipped through the air, clanging his wooden sandals from time to time. He loved the winter time, and there is always a time for someone to go skipping down the street that was fully covered in snow.

Sure people stared at him for being underdressed for the weather (you know the usually _geta-boshi_, and his forest green coat, and green clothing under that). But, as we all know, he didn't care, and he just kept on skipping, minding his own business.

"I love winter. Best season of the year." (A/N: **Do** **they have seasons in the Soul Society? OO**)

He swung around his cane, not minding that if he hit someone that their spirit would be knocked out of their body, and having a witness see that would lead him into jail possibly for first degree murder, but that is beside the point. Snow was piled high on his g_eta-boshi_ and it just fell off as he spun around happily. (A/N: **Trying my best to catch his hard character XD!**)

He continued this for a few more feet, just spinning with glee, as he was totally oblivious to the boy clanging his feet against the ground. He ran past Kisuke catching his attention.

_Huh? What's wrong with…_ _I sense spirit energy._

He observed the boy running a little longer, as he noticed that no one noticed him, even though his clothes were ratted and he was bleeding in many places. Kisuke noticed that he was a spirit, not because the spirit energy, but also that he made no wind movement when he passed, nor was the snow on the ground moving under his feet as he ran.

_Great. Where there is a running spirit…_

A loud screech pierced through the sky, showing that there was actually something there up ahead in the streets before Kisuke.

_There is a hollow. _

Ready for combat, he focused his eyes, seeing the hollow stomping through the streets, knocking street signs and snow everywhere. People ran in fright as many things flung out at them out of random. The hollow came closer, inching himself towards Kisuke. Kisuke on the other hand did not move, and just stood, clenching his cane ready to summon _Benihime._

"_Where is the boy? Come out; come out where ever you are."_

"Obvious. The boy, well he just ran that way…oh wait…maybe it was that way..."

The hollow turned its huge head showing its full facial features. For a hollow of its class it was quite large, but not the least intelligent. It would hit things at random, showing no strategy of actually preying down food. Its mask was a bit large for it's body, and it just looked bulky and out of shape.

"_You, man with the cane. Where is he?"_

The hollow spoke with so much force that Kisuke's hair blew back, letting his _geta-boshi _fly off his head. He looked back to see that his missing particle of clothing just flying away; he wasn't complete without, it was kind of disappointing to see it fly away like that.

"Well, that is the second hat I went through this month. Those are hard to come by." (A/N: **They have 23 of them on am getting one!**)

Kisuke totally ignored the hollow in front of him, as he just began to brush his hair back in place, feeling even worse without the touch of his hat on his head. The hollow became inpatient, and lifted its head to the side, ready to just jump away from the useless man, but it began to turn around again as he noticed the presence of the cane, and the man's large amount of soul energy.

"_What kind of man are you? I sense immense amounts of power coming from your cane, and you as well."_

Kisuke got his attention back and looked up to see the hollow looking at him in question.

"Oh yeah, I am an ex-soul reaper, and this is my zanpaku-to. Man, I miss that hat."

The hollow seemed to choke on its own breathe, if it could, as he heard the two words all hollows hate to hear. Hearing soul reaper and zanpaku-to in the same sentence; not a good sign. Kisuke watched as the hollow inched away from him, scared of what he was going to do next.

"Oh yeah, I am not really open with using the term 'ex-soul reaper' when I refer to myself, but you are a hollow, you won't remember anyway."

"Why…why you!"

Kisuke smiled as he knew the saying 'an angry fighter fights blind' and he readied his zanpaku-to. The hollow inched closer to his face ready for the attack he was going to blow on him. He was sure that he would get this soul reaper, for he did say ex, which meant he wasn't one anymore. This also was a possibility that he maybe could have become weak, besides, soul reapers blood tasted sweeter then a little child's.

"I want you to _nake, _my _Benihi..."_

Kisuke froze, and stopped his call when loud bangs were heard from down the street as buckets and newspapers also snow was flying everywhere. The hollow stopped in its tracks looking behind it to see a small figure with black clothing on walking up to it. It was a girl dressed in a _shihakusho_, and also a zanpaku-to wrap around her back. News papers from the soul society seemed to have blown into her face as she walked down the road, not noticed that a gust of wind blew, and leading her stepping into a bucket, making her walk clumsy down the street knocking over even more things. People began to stare as papers floated in the air as well as a bucket were walking by it. She stopped for a moment and ripped off the paper, and kicked off the bucket almost hitting Kisuke.

Kisuke, with his quick reflexes, unsheathed _Benihime, _and felt the blade cut through the metal with ease. He froze in place, as he began to look around as people stared at him. I mean how awkward would it be that he was standing there with a sword, swinging at buckets that are flying at you, while you rant on about losing a hat, and talking to a non-visible object to humans?

"HAHAHA! Nothing to see here folks. I am just one of those…umm…one manned street shows. You know they are quite on the rage now days."

He chuckled as he scratched the back of his head at being at unease. For a spilt second, the hollow seemed to roll its eyes, and it screamed with a furious howl, which then led to all the people to desert the street now.

"_Okay, better. Now I can fight you, and eat you, my tasty soul reaper."_

"Not if I have anything to say about it!"

The girl on the other side of the hollow pointed her thumb at herself, like she was proud of her authority.

"I am Nake Yukino, soul reaper in training who is patrolling this area as a substitute. And since you are on my territory, and on my list of things to do today, that means I get to kick your ass!"

She gave another thumb up as she had a smile from ear to ear. Her teeth actually made a sparkly.

"_Uhh…no thank you, I don't need to feed off someone like you, I got this soul reaper…wait…where did he go!?!"_

To the hollow's surprise, Kisuke was gone, out of site and no where to be found. On the other hand, from his lack of attention towards Yukino, he felt her zanpaku-to slice through his mask. Kisuke on the other hand, was now walking from roof to roof. He watched the last few minutes of the fight, and caught his hat that had flown by surprisingly. He chuckled as he watched as the girl still was as bad as she was with getting to the hollow as she was when she tried to put the hollow into the soul society.

Kisuke placed his _geta-boshi _back on, and he put _Benihime _back into her sheath. He watched a little longer, and he actually laughed out loud almost at her mess ups. He stood up, jumping to the next roof in front of him as a gust of wind blew. He stopped, forgetting to hold onto his hat, but in the end it had flown off his head once more. All he could do now was just sulk his way back to Urahara Shouten.

**Uh, this is my new fanfic. YUP YUP YUP! For some reason I think this chapter I sorta rushed through, but it sounds okay to me. I mean I don't want this story to be super long anyway. Maybe, 7 chapters, 10 chapters max. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it this far! It is still a work in progress, and I need as much support as always (since that I have a iffy plot for it, which means it will take me forever to get started since yes, I am not as far into the anime and manga as some of you people are) . Anyway, SEE YAHS!! –crosses arms and does Kanonji's signature laugh- Man I love that… **

**Translations –**

**Shouten – shop (I am sure a lot of people know this one)**

**Geta-boshi – Basically, it is the name of the type of hat Kisuke has**

**Nake – sing**

**Shihakusho- The name of the Soul Reaper's clothing (you know, the black and white junk)**

**R&R PWEASE! I accept flamers, and also, if you don't know me and aren't familiar with my fanfics, yes I do write at the end and beginning of every chapter. I think people like reading them since it is a style I always liked. (if you anyone notices, even manga artists do it) It lightens up the mood sometimes. **


	2. Chapter 2 Ooyuki, Anata Hai, Omae

**I changed my mind on the Gigai thing, so just ignore that I said that in the last chapter. Oh yeah, and TeZukAbOchO, thank you for the review once more. I am sorry if I sorta made it sound stupid in anyway shape or form. I hope to read your stories soon! I also thank Crystalline Dream! I haven't thanked you enough lately and I am so glad that you gladly read and review my stories. HEHE! I made this chapter super long because you said you liked long chapters, and so, I must say…I am sorry it took me forever to write. **

**Also, I do not own Bleach…I wish I did though. **

**Chapter 2**

_**Ooyuki, Anata. Hai, Omae.**_

The snow had stopped falling, leaving the sky clear and blue. Clouds were no where in site, and the sun was already starting to show that it would set behind the buildings in about two hours, maybe three hours tops. The roads were cleared from the excess snow by citizens, and now the city was becoming alive as if it usually would be.

At the Urahara Shouten, Jinta was out front swinging around a broom trying to see if he could slice a snowflake in half, while Tessai leaned against a pile of boxes with Ururu sitting on top of them. Each one of the boxes were freshly delivered when Kisuke was gone, and the threesome occupying the house decided to wait until Kisuke had come back to put them away since if they did put them away now, it would be so disorganized in the shouten that it would be hard to tell where he wanted everything anyway in the first place.

"He still has not returned? Where is that careless man?"

A black figure jumped across the roof and landed gracefully upon a gutter on the corner of the shouten. From the looks of it, it was defiantly Yoruichi who had spoken these words. Ururu turned her head towards the black cat, which was now pacing back and forth on the shingles. Ururu and the others had no point onto talking to the cat, since they had no social life with her. Kisuke pretty much was the one who paid attention to the cat who had traveled along the streets and buildings of Karakura. It was only normal for them to be like the way they were; they were practically brother and sister, Kisuke and Yoruichi.

Jinta on the other hand swung his broom around swooping snow into a swirl around him. When he had turned around half way he had caught a shadowy figure down the road. He fell to the ground, from his lack of balance, and pointed towards it.

"Kisuke-san is back!"

It was true he was back, but from this distance something was odd about him. Yoruichi noticed this when Jinta had pointed out his location. Kisuke looked like he was injured or barely alive by the way he was walking. He dragged his sandals against the pavement, making loud scratching sounds that brought goose bumps to your skin. As he got closer, no injuries were shown on his body, but little muffled moans and sighs were heard through the air.

"…"

Everyone fell silent as Kisuke came to their feet, and just went to his knees with a loud sigh. Yoruichi jumped down from the roof, and greeted Kisuke with a stern look upon her face.

"What is wrong? Are you hurt?"

For a bit it seemed Kisuke just sat there like he didn't hear the black cat before him talking. She knew he could hear perfectly fine, but why was he so depressed and worn down.

"Yoruichi, my friend, my dearest friend…"

Kisuke looked like he was about to cry and burst out in tears as he scooted closer to Yoruichi.

"What is it Kisuke?"

In about a millisecond, Yoruichi felt warm arms come around her small body. She began to feel a death hug squish her fragile bones as a cry came from Kisuke's mouth, screaming his problem into the winter air.

"I LOST MY HAT! THE LAST HAT THAT I HAD!"

From the looks of it, Yoruichi was literally of need of an anime vein throb. As fast as she was in the death hug came the sound of Kisuke in pain as she extended her sharp claws into his chest piercing his skin. Well, since his gi is really low cut, the claws did cut through his skin with ease without going through any fabric of any kind.

"Kisuke! You are really pathetic sometimes you know that?!?"

Yoruichi hopped out of his arms, putting her claws back into her little paws. With a few steps she had already left the four of them and gone inside in the warm heat. Jinta and Ururu ran towards Kisuke who was now getting to his regular height when he did stand up. His chest did show deep red marks, which had blood trickling down them a little at a time. Jinta and Ururu looked up at him, in concern for his health. He rubbed both of their heads ad muffled up their hair.

"Kisuke-san, are you alright? I mean we can always get you another hat."

Kisuke laughed and giggled. He looked down at little Ururu who looked so concerned in his personal problems. He knelt down and Ururu saw a whole new side of him. Without his hat, he had well groomed blonde hair, even if it looked like he had bed head, and also you could see his eyes, not like they usually are blocked by the shadow of the _geta-booshi._ In a way he looked not as mysterious as he usually would be, and in a way a little more mature.

"You see Ururu, when I lose a hat, they usually come back to me telling a story or bringing something new into my life."

He smiled, showing how much he really cared about Ururu, leaving a comforting feeling. For a second, a gust of wind blew his hair into his face, and his eyes drifted off with the current of the wind. He seemed like he sensed something, or the wind was telling him a secret that he had to hear. When he had gained focus again, he looked at Ururu one more time, and he gave a small gently grin as he began to speak.

"I believe this time, I will get something special."

Ururu noticed his face and eyes were drifting off into deep thought. What was he thinking about? Where was his mind taking him? He stood up to his full height and looked up to the sky. He saw dark clouds rolling in, and he sighed as he knew more snow would be coming. Facing forward, he had began to walk into his shouten, to continue his duties as the _shihainin_, which meant that he needed the newly arrived boxes to be put into the shouten before they get wet from snow. He didn't want good soul society merchandise to go to waste when he lived off the money he would be receiving, so he could buy a million extra booshis, and maybe some more expensive and elegant milk for Yoruichi since he only bought the cheap stuff the way business was going now a days.

"Jinta! Ururu! Tessai! Come to your captain!"

Kisuke, in his usual silly mood, stood straight up like he was a military captain with his chest out. He put his cane over his head, to show a salute to his commanding soldiers. Each one of the three stood before him, and waited for their command. Kisuke looked at their faces, and just pointed to the boxes piled high before the garage looking door that went into the shop.

"I want you to pack these boxes in the back, and make sure that they are in no organized order what-so-ever."

Everyone looked at him like he was crazy. Not organized, why would he want that?

"Who ever can get the most boxes in before the sunsets gets to have whatever they want for dinner? Also, since it is officially game night, and for the last couple of weeks, Yoruichi keeps on choosing _onigokko_, I will let the winner choose whatever game they may like. Even a simple game of _jaken."_

Kisuke only set this game for Jinta and Ururu mostly, since he already knew that Tessai was a grown man, and he wasn't the type to fool around in competition. Or maybe he was, Tessai was even more mysterious than Kisuke was, but in the end, it was still fun putting up games like this since the work gone done faster, and he just loved messing with people anyway.

In his ready position, he had pulled his fan out of his sleeve, and flung it open with a flick of his wrist. A white snowflake came gracefully tumbling down, and before it could even get close to the ground, a gust of wind blew it back up into a wind current. This was caused by Kisuke swinging his fan with as much force as he could conjure into this readying signal.

"_IKIMASU!"_

And with that, Jinta had already darted towards the boxes, and he was the first one to bring one in. It was a small one, and after him Ururu carried something even smaller. Kisuke watched in delight behind his fan, hiding a sneaky grin he always gave when he did these kinds of things. Tessai was the last one to pick up boxes, and he was the first to bring in the heaviest boxes of all. About a few minutes had passed and more than half of the pile had been brought in.

Kisuke was sitting inside watching every one of them coming in with a freshly closed box from the soul society. Each one was a bit different in size, showing a few stickers and stamps of 'fragile' and 'don't stack' signs. On his little mat, Kisuke began sipping tea, while holding a check list of his new arrivals. He counted the number of things he had ordered.

"Let's see…well, it says right here that I would have 24 boxes delivered to my shouten on this date."

Peeking up from under his blonde bangs he saw that each and every worker of his were already done, and Jinta had already been showing off his muscles on his arms, telling the other two that he was the one who brought in the most boxes.

"Kisuke-san! Who won?"

From his slouched position, he looked up with a confused expression on his face. He forgot about the game he had set up, that he never really counted how many boxes were brought in, or who brought in the most. With quick thinking he had thought up a solution.

"There is a second part."

He raised his fingers holding two straight towards the ceiling. He smiled as he began to giggle.

"I want the three of you to organize my boxes now, and put all them into categories. In one pile I want things that need to be in stock immediately, which would be soul candy, and gigai items. Then in the second pile, I want items that need to be in reach just in case. Third pile I want storage items, like extra items we might need if we get a rush order or a large order at anytime. Last but not least, I want you to put the wrong address, or unknown items last. Also, there should be at least 24 boxes in all, and I am counting on you to count each one."

They all nodded in unison, and Kisuke snapped his fingers for them to begin. Loud scratching feet were heard against his polished floors, but he really didn't care anyway. He stood to his feet, and kicked off his sandals, letting them sit before the opening of the shouten. He had a soul society news paper in his left hand and a kettle of tea in his right. From the looks of it he was going to go read the paper, but the truth was he just wanted to take a nap, and so he just popped the paper on the floor and let it sit there.

He scrapped his feet down the hallway as he passed three doors coming to the fourth door, and opening it with a swoosh. In front of him there was his room, just the way he left it.

"The three of them should be done soon…but I am so tired…ugg…"

From this point, he took off his green forest jacket, and piled it in another pile of clothes in the corner. With a loud yawn and his arm stretching is a large direction he slouched onto his bed moaning into his sheets. His position made him look like a worm crawling against the ground, as his back was put into the air but straightened out as he scooted up towards the pillows.

Yawning once more he cuddled up to a pillow and placed his head on it, starting to already feel comfy on his feather bed.

xXxXxXxXxXx

"Tessai, look I put them all in perfect order."

Jinta pointed to his stack and showed off proudly as Ururu was putting her last box in a pile. With a slouched figure she walked towards Tessai and sighed.

"Jinta, you did very well, but Ururu was more careful with the merchandise. You practically threw the boxes down. You know how much it would cost you to repay for some of the merchandise you could have broken?"

Jinta huffed and looked towards Ururu who was now just looking off into the distance, staring at the door at the end of the very slim storage room. It was quiet outside the door, but it felt like if she exited out of it, something would pop out at her.

"Ururu, what is the matter?"

She flipped back her head, and in the sharp twist, she accidentally hit Jinta in the head with her pigtails, setting him off with immense anger. He grabbed her hair and pulled at it as usual and soon was just pried off my Tessai, who was literally getting tired of all their fighting.

"Will you two ever get along?"

Jinta huffed and he ran off into the main room of the shouten to see that it was about closing time. He ran up towards the front of the store, and tripped over Kisuke's sandals, but soon slid the door closed, and turned around to see Ururu and Tessai walking down the hallway.

"Hey! Don't forget about me!"

Jinta ran down the hallway screaming and yelling at the two, but soon was stopped as Tessai covered his mouth and pulled him up in the air. He whispered to Jinta, trying to calm him down.

"Jinta, Kisuke-san is sleeping. Be quiet. Understood?"

Lowering him towards the ground, Jinta nodded and sighed as he closed the door behind him to his room. Inside he saw Ururu sitting in a corner, seeming as if she was sulking because she had whacked Jinta in the head with her pig tails. The little red headed, or orange haired, whatever you prefer, boy walked over to Ururu, and just stood there, staring at her.

"I am sorry…I…um…"

"YOU BETTER BE SORRY!"

Jinta grabbed at her hair once more, while she kicked and screamed for him to stop. But, all this ended as in about ten seconds time, Jinta was carried by Tessai out of the room and thrown into the 'punishment/time out room' or as known as, by people who don't really live there, and aren't use to the names and such of rooms, would gladly call it…

"Tessai! Don't put me in the freezer again! This thing might be big, but..."

The door slammed shut, and Tessai sighed as he could see Jinta's spiked up hair appear in the little window as he jumped up and down to get Tessai's attention. The term 'cooling off' was used to the extreme in this house/shouten, and Tessai practically invented this. Throwing Jinta into the ice box when he knew he should have been quiet or done his chores and had gotten so loud and bossy that he had to be thrown in there.

In the first place, Tessai had begun to use this ice box for a better use now, since the group of four never really used any cold products, or had products that needed to be in cold air. All they kept in the freezer was just boxes of ice cream, and sometimes popsicles, but that was all used in the summer time, and besides if anyone even touched Kisuke's favorite popsicle and ice cream, it would be emotional break down for him, and everyone would be seeing how pathetic he really could be when it came to his favorite things going missing. Which, soon everyone learned that he had kept a checklist of the flavors, and checked them at least every day in the summer to see if anyone stole them or ate half of it or something like that.

On the other hand, Tessai had heard Jinta's muffled voice and bagging starting to slow down as he never continued to jump up and down. But to his surprise he had seen little Ururu looking from behind him at the window, just staring as Jinta jumped one more time and hung onto the end of the outline of the window. He put his face up to the window and smudged it against it smearing spit and grease everywhere, making the window look poorly clean and disgusting. Along with all of this, he had begun to make faces at Ururu showing his tongue and many other faces that surprised them both.

"I was really sorry…I didn't…"

Tessai patted her head, and just said that it wasn't any problem at all that Jinta just had a hot head, and he just liked yelling at her to feel big and superior even though he was three years younger than her. In the end, Ururu was never really capable of standing up to Jinta no matter how hard she tried and she always ran to Kisuke or Tessai for her help, or just blamed everything on herself when something horrible happened so that Jinta wouldn't yell at her for thinking different.

She had turned around and walked towards her room that she shared with Jinta, and climbed up to a window and saw the snow falling in mass amounts once more. It had never snowed this much in the winter, and it sometimes made her wonder why it was snowing so much this time around. In a way she enjoyed it, but it was becoming strange and un normal for this to happen, and even now the weather people couldn't even predict it.

"But Kisuke-san likes the snow, so there is no problem with that is there?"

A little gust of wind blew into her face, as she noticed that she had opened the window to catch the flakes. It was cold, and the temperature was dropping below zero now, and no one was outside of their abodes without at least ten pairs of clothing on their skin. In the distance she could see Yoruichi jumping upon the fence, and sitting on a little post watching the people walk by. It was weird to have her around, and it was quite a surprise to have her here today. Yoruichi usually was doing something and never really visited them that much, but Ururu guessed that since it was the holidays, Yoruichi decided to be nice and stay for the festive fun.

One the other hand, Tessai had let out Jinta from his cooling station, and dragged him into his room and plopping him onto the bed. Ururu had closed the window by this time and was jumping down onto the floor and towards her bed as well. Jinta had sat there for a bit, but he just plopped off to sleep and so did Ururu. Even Tessai had left for his room, wanting sleep. It was also unusual for everyone to be sleeping, but they always needed a good nap once in a while since they always worked all day, and never really got any rest.

Yoruichi sat upon the fence and stared off into the distance still noticing the many ghosts that were appearing. Many were happy traveling around without a care in their mind as no one had noticed them, but Yoruichi knew they were in danger. There was a sense of extreme heavy soul pressure off into the distance, and it seemed to be growing with ever second. It was the growing presence of a hollow, and even though it seemed as if it was far off into the distance, she knew that it would be heading for Kurakara soon, and the possibility that a soul reaper would be around to kill it off would be a very slim chance. Yoruichi turned around on the fence post, and jumped to the next one as she noticed the difference in the air. Looking around she, stared up into the sky.

"The snow has stopped…"

**Umm, well this is a horrible ending I know. I couldn't really think of one, because I just wanted to continue the chapter, and that is why this is so long. Practically this is the longest chapter I have ever written in all my years of writing fanfictions. It surprises me that I actually got over 3,500 words this time! Anyway, I expect to update this story at least every week and half or something like that. I will try to get some of it done over the summer since but I doubt I will be able to. Or I might be. I don't know. **

**Translations –**

**Ooyuki, anata. Hai, omae.- It is two sentences. First sentence says 'heavy snow, my love'. Second on says, 'yes, my love.' Anata, which means my love, a female would say, while a male would say omae. **

**Shihainin– manager **

**Onigokko – tag, which a game Yoruichi has never been beaten at**

**Jaken – Rock paper scissors**

**Ikimasu – go **

**Geta-booshi – I found the real definition. It is actually hat and clogs. Geta means clogs, and booshi means hat. So sorry for that mistake in the last chapter. **


	3. Chapter 3 Ride On Shooting Star

**I am so sorry if I updated late! I am going on vacation, and it will take me a while to update during the summer. **

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Bleach. Oh yeah, I also do not own Monopoly.

**Chapter 3**

**Ride On Shooting Star**

Stars lighted the night sky as the full moon shown down on the roads of Karakura. Down every street the lights shown from inside the houses and people were eating dinner talking about what had happened during their day, and how now it was winter vacation for the students. The snow had officially stopped falling and now, there was not a soul to be seen or heard, except for one area.

As Kisuke said, yes, someone would get to choose a game and what to eat, and since Kisuke was still sleeping, it was undecided, and Jinta, of course was being impatient. Tessai had let him out of the freezer, since well he was in there for quite sometime and it seemed that he learned his lesson. But in the end, he learned a new way to show he was tired of waiting for his decision (not that he got locked up in the ice box for that anyway), and decided to annoy Ururu and Tessai by throwing snow balls at the metal wall that locked up the shouten.

"I will not stop this until I get my answer!" And bang, yet another snowball hit the metal, moving the molecules in the air causing the sound wave that turned into an unbearable echoing sound. Tessai was coming close to about having it with his attitude today, and stood to his full height, stepped over to the metal, grabbed the handle and pulled it up.

"Jinta, if you do not st-"

SMACK! Right upon Tessai's face landed a huge snowball, and bits and pieces fell to the ground as it began to melt because of his body heat. Or maybe because of Tessai's blood pressure rising as he grabbed Jinta by the coaler again, pulled him into the shouten, and held him down. "Ururu, get some rope and tape."

She nodded, and went down the hall, as she heard Jinta's loud complaining about how it was totally unfair that Kisuke had to make the decision even though he probably wouldn't even care in the first place. Tessai began to lose his last nerve as Jinta began to squirm around and even yell even louder. But, thank god Ururu's footsteps were then heard running down the hard wood floors. She had in her arms a role of duct tape and a very large and heavy warping of rope.

"Thank you Ururu, now please help me tie him up before he does anything else."

And in a instant…Jinta was a giant ball of rope with a piece of duct tape over his mouth. He moved from side to side as he tried to free himself but Tessai did nothing but watch him struggle. Ururu began to giggle as he fell to one side and actually began rolling backwards toward the wall, and hearing his muffled screaming. Tessai looked towards the front of the shouten again, and began to hear Jinta calm down as it seemed he was too tired to even move in his big buddle of …whatever rope is made of.

"Well, Jinta. If you ask me, I would most likely declare you the winner anyway since you are so competitive. We don't even need Kisuke-san's opinion anyway." Tessai looked over his shoulder and saw how Jinta was fully facing the wall making him seem like he was giving him the cold shoulder.

"Maybe if you took off the tape, he would tell you what he would want?"

Tessai was a bit surprised to hear Ururu's voice after so long, and quite frankly, he had no intention of removing the tape. Jinta was being twice the pain in the ass he usually is in a day, and so he deserved to be wrapped up for a while even though he was already punished before.

He turned forward again, and looked towards the almost open doorway to the shouten. It was faint but he could feel slight soul pressure off into the distance; he had no worry about it right now, but deep in his gut he knew defiantly something was going to happen in the next few hours. It was always common to feel soul pressure from hollows once in while, but there were always soul reapers on patrol, so there was no real reason to be frightened of what might happen, and what could not.

Well on the other hand, Ururu could not sense anything but she was still bit upset for Kisuke for losing his hat earlier. To her, Kisuke looked so sad when he mentioned he had lost it, even though he was over exaggerating when he did hug Yoruichi until she could barely breathe. But, Kisuke was always a mysterious man, and not to mention unpredictable, so in any case I guess it was normal for him to get upset over something so, how to put it, not really important for a lack of better words.

To break the two's attention, a loud and fast banging was coming from the back door, and Ururu seemed to be the first one to notice it. "I wonder who that could be. Usually no one comes through there." She got up and walked towards the large door only to be greeted by yet another loud bang. She grabbed the cold door knob and opened it slightly to be surprised by a fast gush of wind and a blur of brown, orange, and yellow.

Ururu looked behind her to see that Tessai was running after the blur, and seemed that he caught up to it quite fast. Tessai saw before him a very serious and what seemed a scared Yoruichi. She was banging onto Kisuke's door, only to hear no sound of movement or reply from anything on the other side. So, in a fit of rage she slammed open the door, walked over towards what seemed to be a green snoring lump, and grabbed the ends of some sheets and flipped them until a large thump hit the ground.

"Get up!" Finally, after the nice and pleasant wake up call, Kisuke slowly appeared on the other side of the bed, moaning and groaning in pain and agony. He looked over to Yoruichi, and smiled putting up his wave in a polite hello. "Why hello there, Yoruichi." He got to his feet and smiled to his dear friend waving in a really happy mood besides the fact of how he was waken up.

"Get that smug smile off your face, Kisuke. We have trouble." With that, Kisuke's facial expression changed to something completely different. He became serious and looked towards Yoruichi noticing that she was battle ready. (you know, in her true form, and in fighting uniform blah blah blah) Tessai on the other hand had returned to Jinta and Ururu, and did not say a thing. He knew the Kisuke and Yoruichi could handle whatever was coming on themselves anyway, and the three of them would only get in the way. He had heard doors closing in the back, and as soon as this had happened, he had released the duct tape from Jinta's mouth only to be surprised by his commands for a game and food.

xXxXxXxXxXx

The two had left, heading towards the direction of where Yoruichi said the trouble was coming from. It turned out that Yoruichi had traveled across the town for an evening walk, and her sensing of the hollow had become greater and greater the further she had gone. She was sensing a large hallow that seemed to be not yet detected by a soul reaper, and was defiantly after something to feed on. Yoruichi found it quite unusual that something that large and bulky wasn't even sighted by a shinigami. Another thing that also got to her was that it amazed her that Kisuke didn't even notice as well.

"Kisuke-kun, you must be getting rusty. You didn't notice the hollow before me."

As they jumped up onto a roof, he looked to his side and knew that Yoruichi was mocking him with her remark. Actually, he knew that she was just trying to mess with his head with the comment, since well he was sleeping, and everyone knows that Kisuke does sleep like he is in a coma. But, in the end, they always teased each other like that, so he just ignored her, continuing to their destination.

As they traveled even closer it seemed that they were ending up in an alley way. Well more like the slums. Litter was scattered across the ground along with a few bums here and there. It was quite a sight for it was a while since the two had ever looked around this part of town in a while. Actually, it was surprising to Kisuke, for, even though he lived in Karakura for about a year (A/N: **Wild guess…not sure how long he had that shop**) he still wasn't sure how to get around most of the town.

Kisuke and Yoruichi both felt the soul pressure pull down on them like gravity being controlled by Chinmei's Chiyuugi from Samurai Deeper Kyo. A loud stomp came from behind a building and before them both appeared a foot about the size of a car. Kisuke looked up to see that it was indeed a large hollow, but it had zanpaku-to markings across its mask from many soul reapers trying to destroy the thing, but not succeeding.

"This one seems indeed tough. I might as well distract it while you try to cut it with your zanpaku-to." Yoruichi spoke this as she inched toward the large thing, as Kisuke nodded to her plan. It was all set, and Yoruichi would jump up towards the hollows face getting its attention while Kisuke would jump from a roof and split its mask, purifying him with his zanpaku-to. Perfect and well set as it seemed, as Kisuke and Yoruichi were getting situated in there spots, a faint sound of sandals were heard in a distant alley way.

The foot steps seemed to be becoming louder as they echoed off of some near by walls. The hollow turned its head toward the sound and moved forward, way out of Yoruichi's and Kisuke's range. "Damn! What does he see?" Yoruichi followed behind the hollow as Kisuke jumped from the building he was to the next once before it. Kisuke's view was blocked as the hollow stopped moving, and began to kneel down to a lower level.

"_I remember you. You are that clumsy little one." _Kisuke seemed to think that it was a soul reaper he was talking to so he walked a little bit farther only to see that yes it was a soul reaper, but it was Yukino from earlier. Kisuke jumped down from the ledge he was on and landed softly onto the ground only to hear the sound of Yukino jumping up to the head of the hollow chopping it from the front. His eyes became wide as the hollow, instead of moving just stood there as the zanpaku-to clanged against his metal hard mask.

"What?" Her small surprised words came from her mouth as her whole body began to shake from the ricochet of her zanpaku-to. Her body went flying back as the hollow screeched in her face sending loud unbearable sound waves through the air. Kisuke ran towards her catching her in his arms as if he was a prince from one of those lame fantasy stories. Cliché I know, but who doesn't think that a damsel in distress would just plop onto the hard cold cement without some man catching her.

Looking down Kisuke saw that she was fully knocked out as her ears were bleeding from the sound wave, not to mention her hands bleeding profusely from the impact of her zanpaku-to ricocheting. But, that was not all, she had a gash across her abdomen, which seemed to be inflected by the same hollow and in his eyes, she needed medical attention. Yukino slowly moved in his arms, but she was not coming to for a while, noticing that she was indeed injured more than it seemed. So, Yoruichi noticing that Kisuke was sort of helpless with someone in his hands, came around the hollow and stopped before Kisuke, only to be greeted with the girl in her arms now. She looked up at Kisuke, as she knew that in some way he had some connection with this girl, and this wasn't the time to ask questions.

"Explain later. I will be in the park behind you while you fight of the hollow." With that said, Yoruichi was heard running at full speed in with few shun-po in between into the park behind them, hiding between the trees so she wouldn't be spotted by the hollow. She was not worried about Kisuke at all, for she knew that he was a former captain, so he would not have any trouble with something this easily defeated by someone of his rank.

As Kisuke could plainly see, he was going to fight this thing alone, and even though he liked teamwork better, he knew that he was going to forge for himself. So before the hollow could get to him, he summoned Benihime, only to see that the hollow was indeed becoming interested in him then rather the other two that were gone by now.

"_Well, what luck for me, I get one soul reaper, and then another. Hn, you are just small fry to me, and that girl was just trash, so I will just plow…"_The hollow could feel something sharp splitting his skull from behind, and then full through cutting his mask straight in half. Both pieces fell to the ground as he collapsed to his knees and was laying there helpless waiting for konso to be preformed on him. Kisuke kneeled down towards the head of the hollow and did what he had to do, and soon turned his back walking fashionably in a job well down sort of scene. (A/N: **Just listen to the song Action Movie Hero Boy by Lemon Demon, and this would seem funny XD**)

Yoruichi began to place the girl on a patch of grass as she could felt Kisuke's presence from behind her. Everything was silent as Kisuke began to come closer to a kneeling position right besides her looking at the girl lying in the shadows of the night. There was a dead silence between the two, and from this point in time you would expect some movement of any kind to tend to the girl but there was just silence. "I met her earlier today." Yoruichi flinched her head towards Kisuke, almost waking him in the face with her long hair. Kisuke seem to keep his silence as Yoruichi did this, seeming as if he didn't even notice that he was getting a serious look from the woman besides him.

"Her name is Nake Yukino. She is a soul reaper, not a good one at that. Sort of klutzy, but she spoke earlier today and said that she was the substitute that was supposed to be patrolling this place." Kisuke looked over her complexion as he finished he sentence. She wasn't anything of the most beautiful thing in the world, but she had a very sweet look to her. Her face was oval shaped, with long wavy sort of sandy blonde hair with tints of maroon here and there. Her skin was the color of a pearl, pure white, without any blemishes to be seen anywhere, which seemed to show that she indeed take care of herself. Kisuke was surprised that she looked around his age, maybe a bit younger than him, but he had never seen her when he was in the soul society.

"Did she tell you what squad she was in?" Kisuke snapped back to reality as he heard Yoruichi's question come to his ears. Yoruichi could tell from his face that he had no idea, and it was a complete mystery. So, Yoruichi grabbed the collar of her shihakusho only to be surprised by her belonging to the 4th company. Yoruichi just felt annoyed at the soul society for putting someone from the 4th company into full combat against hollows in a place like Karakura.

"Can you believe they put someone from the…Kisuke!" If there was a paddle that magically appeared right then, then she would defiantly smack Kisuke across the head. Now, even though Kisuke said it himself that he was a 'pervert' this was strictly invading ones privacy. He was literally reaching into Yukino's shihakusho, and to Yoruichi it looked he was heading for a free feel, even though this was something that was not like him at all. So just to stop him, she hit him across the face, letting him fly to the ground, only to have in his hand his hat.

"Owe, that hurt, Yoruichi!" He rubbed the side of his face as he got to his straight up position. He had a large hand print across his fair skin, showing that Yoruichi smacked him pretty hard for not understanding the situation. Yoruichi sighed as she watched him put on his hat which made him grin a little as he began to feel like an old buddy had returned to him from some long journey. In a way, it made him look sort of cute, for he was some what acting like a material…man? And for that matter, I don't think there are many men out there that get happy just by obtaining some article of clothing.

"Anyway, we should defiantly bring her back to the shouten. There is no way that she will be able to recover over night." Yukino was then lifted by Yoruichi, who jumped into a tree. She paused and looked behind her waiting for Kisuke to stand and follow her. A silence came over the two, as he looked up and began to rub his face. Kisuke seemed to be pouting like a little child, whining like he was just scolded for doing something he shouldn't have. "That really hurt, Yoruichi. This is the second time you hurt me today...You are so mea-" And for the second time in one day, someone else got hit in the face by a snow ball. Except this one was intentional.

Yoruichi rolled her eyes as Kisuke held three fingers showing that that was the third time today that in some way Yoruichi abused him. As the snow fell to the ground, Kisuke's face was even more pathetic. He put a dog pout on his face, showing that he was truly defeated. In all this time, it was surprising that they were more like fooling around then thinking about taking about Yukino. I guess it was like one of those things that they couldn't help. Life is too short to be serious about everything.

xXxXxXxXxXx

"Ha, you owe me 100,000 dollars, Ururu." Well, on another hand, the shouten was now fully closed only to have lights shining from a room in the back. In this room, game night was decided on an old American game that the gang found in the closest called Monopoly. It was something that seemed interesting, so Jinta dusted it off, and set up the game board as he began to finish his diner. (Which was just some plan old instant raman found in the back of one of Kisuke's many draws and shelves.) Well, they read the instructions, and after a long fight over who would be the dog, they began to play only to find out that this game was totally useless and boring…except to Jinta.

If all the colored paper money he had was real, he would probably buy himself a baseball bat, and not just stop there, he would probably buy every stadium he could find in Japan and own them all and probably put a picture of him smack dab on the front with a giant neon sign that would say "Jinta's Stadium!" To him the game was fun, for he could steal all the money from Ururu and not get in trouble with it. Also, it was quite amusing how Tessai, the more adult one of the two, was paying Luxury Tax up the ass while 'raising his voice not yelling' at Jinta on how he magically got the pink fifties. (A/N:**I do not own most of this sentence. Dane Cook was the genius who gave me the idea. All thanks to the funny king himself.**)

The game continued. Jinta was literally rolling in his money laughing his little ass off sounding more like he was going insane than being happy he was more rich than any boy could ever be. Tessai sighed at his slow and painful defeat, while Ururu just sat there looking at her five white ones. The both of them seemed to be accepting defeat as the game was defiantly over. There was no point in continueing, so the only thing to do was put it away.

"Loser gets to put it away!" Jinta yelled as he ran down the hallway laughing at his grand win. A bit of time passed and everything was calming down in the shouten, as Jinta and Ururu both fell asleep in one of the many rooms throughout the elaborate home. Tessai picked them both up and carried them both to their rooms, tucking them in, and turning off the lights, only to notice that it was a long way from the wall from where the lamp was to the other side, and walking in the dark with toys all over the floor wasn't one of those good things about this room.

Even though the health hazard was quickly and silently taken care of without any tripping of any kind, Tessai had finally closed the door to their room, and breathed out a sigh of relief. Jinta was finally asleep, and could cause no more trouble. Now it was time to wait for the other two to return, and right on time they came. Well, a matter of fact it was only Kisuke, and he was coming from the back on which he left. He came in silently only to startle Tessai with his sly movements throughout the house without a sound. Tessai faced him concern as Kisuke seemed to be a little uneasy.

"Where is Yoruichi?" Kisuke smiled and took his hat off of his head and pointed to it. "Well, you know how I said that my hat, whenever it returns to me, it brings something special with it? Well…" Tessai stood to his full height, only hoping it wasn't an animal, for he knew that the last time Kisuke tried to take care of a goldfish he won at a fair, he accidentally killed it by seeing if feeding the thing more food would make it turn into a monstrous goldfish that would work as a turn off for bad costumers. But yet, Tessai was wrong, and in a way he would be grateful it wasn't an animal. Yoruichi walked into the room, still carrying Yukino in her arms. There was a bit of silence as Tessai looked at Yoruichi and at Kisuke, who had a smug smirk on his face again. There wasn't much to do, so he did what he thought was best. Tessai, in a flash, just picked the girl up, and walked down the hallway down to the right to a nice guest room, with a futon in the middle. The gang walked into there, and little words were spoken as clean clothes were provided along with everything else essential to a guest.

In the a small amount of time, Kisuke and Tessai both left the room and left Yoruichi in the room with Yukino for her to dress her properly and tend to her wounds. It was an awkward silence between them all as it seemed that Kisuke was acting a bit strangely, as he just stared at his hat in a fascination. "What is it Kisuke-san?"

There was no quick reply, as Kisuke grinned at Tessai's interest. He placed the hat back on his head, and began to speak, "I can't remember everything this hat brought back, but most of it was something interesting. I mean I would find it caught somewhere, and the next thing you know that area could turn into my favorite restaurant or something like that." He paused as he seemed to think of something to say for what he was thinking. "It is hard to say, but for some odd reason, that girl in there, I feel like, this hat brought back something…"

It was hard to think of words to finish his sentence. One of the hardest things to do is explain your emotions, and right now, it was one of those times for Kisuke. It was complicated. He felt like this girl, Yukino, was going to become something dear to him in a way. He wasn't sure if it was going to be a friend or a deep compassionate lover, it was hard to tell right now, but in a way, it felt good to have this feeling throughout him. He was never sure what might happen when this hat did what it did, and he enjoyed the surprises he got. "Tessai, this hat has brought back something special. I don't know what it is, but I will know when I see it." With that Kisuke seemed satisfied with the day, and turned to his left heading for his room. His door clicked closed and silence was heard throughout the whole shouten.

**Alright…good chapter. I liked it, and I enhoyed writing this one. In the future there is a possiblilty that I will change the genre and rating (yes rating, cause yes, there is going to be sexually content…but not sure on a lemon yet…most likely a no right now) but I got most of this fanfiction planned out. Uh anyway, THANK YOU REVIEWERS!! I LOVE YOU ALL!! –huggles- Oh and yes, Chinmei from SDK. He can control gravity and he has the ability to make gravity pull down on someone just like soul pressure! Oh yeah by the way…this chapter has a thousand more words than the last! WOOHOO!! I guess that is why it took so long to update, but I love all you people out there that like it so far! I LOVE YOUR REVIEWS, AND KEEP ON REVIEWING! BAI BAI!!**

BTW: The chapter is named after one of my favirote J-Rock songs. It is Ride On Shooting Star by The Pillows. If you watched FLCL before, then you have heard it.


	4. Chapter 4 Toritsuki

**I am a very slow writer, so this story might turn out longer then I expected, but that is okay. I know you people will like it and I am sorry if the story is not that exciting right now, but it will, trust me. And by the way, for you YoruXUra lovers out there, there isn't going to be any of that in this. Sorry, but I picture them as sort a brother sister kind of relationship. **

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Bleach in any way. If I did Kisuke would have not been banned from the Soul Society and Mayuri would burn in…a giant pot of lava!

**Chapter 4**

**Toritsuki**

The night passed, leaving the town drowned in light once more as the snow made everything shine, leaving beautiful colors everywhere. Hours into the morning, the sun became brighter; waking everyone in the town, who began their day as if everyday before it. Nothing new and nothing had changed. Well, not everyone.

To tell the truth, the shouten was as far from a normal morning as it could get. The morning did start off good, but as Jinta and Ururu became more curious about why the guest room (that was never used) was closed off, showing that it seemed that someone was in there. At first Ururu was suspecting it was Yoruichi but Jinta, being his self, corrected her with his fist grinding against her head while saying that Yoruichi never stays over, for she always had somewhere else to go.

"Look, Ururu, tell me this. Yoruichi never stays over right? So who is in there?" Jinta pointed his little finger at the rice paper door. It was silent and Ururu looked up at Jinta, stuttering her words as she tried to think up an answer that he would accept. She knew that whatever she said, he wouldn't take as a good answer, so she just didn't answer. Bad choice. Jinta became impatient and began to do his grinding fist thing to her again, getting through her head his so called 'right answer'. "Well, Ururu! Isn't it obvious! It's a wo-"

He was immediately cut off by his collar of his shirt getting tugged by Tessai. Jinta could feel Tessai's stern eyes looking down at him, showing that Jinta was defiantly doing something wrong. "As of yesterday, please Jinta, would you just be quiet for a day or so?" It was quite unusual for Tessai to talk to Jinta in such a polite manner, so it became even more suspicious about the room, since well it proved that he knew something. Jinta crossed his arms across his chest, and huffed at Tessai. His sneakers hit the ground again, and he walked past Ururu and into the next room, closing the door furiously behind him.

xXxXxXxXxXx

On another note, our dear Yukino lay on her futon on the verge of waking as she soon heard the sound of a door being shut furiously. She groaned in annoyance as she did want to sleep longer and she cursed under her breath as she knew that it was some idiot from Fourth Company acting pissed off because he was getting picked on by someone from Eleventh Company probably. It wasn't unusual for her to be woken up this way, but you know, you got to do what you got to do. So with that said, with a really cranky attitude, she rose from her slumber and sat straight up to only be greeted by a sickening pain in her abdomen.

"What did I eat last night?" She rubbed her stomach, too tired to even notice that she was bandaged up for the deep wound that was planted on her by the hollow from the previous day. Without a care in the world, she looked to her right to see a nicely staked pile of clothes for her to dress in. Nothing went through her mind as they seemed almost too contently placed right there, but in any case, she began to dress, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she did so.

With long yawn, she stretched her arms behind her and heard her shoulder blades begin to crack. Twisting her back around, and titling her head from side to side, she got all the discomforting aches out of her body, and began to head towards the rice paper door to begin her day. She did not expect anything out of the ordinary, but to her surprise when she opened her door, she soon saw a wall about four feet in front of her. "When did…where? What?" As she became even more confused, she walked up to the wall and tapped on it, noticing it was a real wall, and not some prank some other soul reaper was playing on her.

"Okay, that is a little odd; I guess I never noticed that before or something." She soon forgot about it as she turned to her side, and walked down the hard wood floored hallway, yawning once more as it seemed she was still a little tired. But as she seemed to think she was walking down her usually hallway she would walk down, in any case she didn't even give a care that her eyes were closed showing that she knew where she was heading. Straight into another wall.

Yes, right into a wall you heard me. In a way it was a little funny, but she became a little mad at the fact that she was now being tricked into thinking she was in a different place rather than the soul society. Yukino rubbed her forehead and nose as she began to notice something that was a bit different. Looking to her right, she could hear foot steps coming slowly down the hallway, and suddenly she saw a large shadow appear on the floor that began to grow in size. Feet appeared before her, and she heard a low manly voice begin to speak. "Hello, you must be our new guest."

Yukino looked up to see that the man was about twice her size, and probably could throw her about ten feet across the room without even breaking a sweat. She also noticed that he had an apron on that had kanji placed at the middle, and that he wore glasses that gleamed in the sunlight. Now, I tell you what would you do if you suddenly woke up in some place you never have seen before in your life, and then suddenly a giant man about twice your size appeared before you and greeted you like nothing happened?

Scream. Yukino screamed like she was being kidnapped by the guy, and soon began to run past him, heading straight towards the closest door she could get to. Grabbing the handle she turned it and ran into the room only to bump into something, which began to fall as it became off balance. Yukino gripped onto the clothing of the figure, and feel down with it, landing with a loud thump. It was a bit of a silence as she began to feel around to notice that the figure was yet another man, and she looked up to see someone with blonde hair (that was quite un-brushed) who was rubbing the back of his head from a hard contact with the floor.

"Owe, now that was an odd wake up call." Yukino heard his voice, and soon began to notice that she was still gripping onto to him like some girl clinging onto her boyfriend during a scary movie. It ran through her head that this was a little embarrassing, and as quick as she could, she sat up and apologized to the man as politely as she could. She kept her head sloped down as she tried to hide the blush on her face, that was consuming her cheeks making them seem like she had some major sunburn.

"See, Ururu, I told you so." A small and annoying voice was heard at the front of the opening of the door, and Yukino shifted her eyes towards two small figures. One was a timid little girl with black pigtails, and the other was a boy, maybe a little younger then the girl, who had red hair spiked up in three different directions.

"Well, I see you met everyone." Yukino looked up to see that the man had risen to a sitting up position, and was stretching his arms way up in the air as if he just got up. As he began to put them down, he looked over to her, staring her in the eyes, which soon made Yukino blush again. He smiled a little and it made her blush even more, showing that she was defiantly a little embarrassed to be stared at so tenderly by someone she just knocked off their feet. Clenching her fists she forced herself to look the man in the eyes, and saw his grayish eyes meet hers, which seemed to relax her a bit.

"Kisuke-san, I am sorry if I awoke you, but the miss here was scared of my appearance. I beg your forgiveness." The one called Kisuke looked up to the huge man twice the size of Yukino, and chuckled at his apology. "Tessai, no need for an apology. A girl her size, waking up in a place where she has no clue where she is, and seeing you would scare anyone." Not quite sure if that was an insult or not, Tessai thanked him, and watched as Kisuke rose to his feet as well as Yukino. There was a dead silence as the two men left the room, and stopped at the door opening. Kisuke looked back at Yukino, and began to speak in a calm yet eager voice, "Are you just going to stand there? Come on." He raised his hand and waved it towards him, and Yukino nodded and followed right behind the four of them.

xXxXxXxXxXx

The story was explained to Yukino as to why she was here, in the shouten, with a huge guy, two little kids, and…Kisuke. (His name should) At this time, lunch was made, and it mostly consisted of onigiri and suupu with some ocha which were made by Ururu as quick and well as she could. It was served hot, and Yukino greatly thanked her as politely as possible.

Yukino sipped her ocha, and looked across from her to see Kisuke sitting in front of her with a notepad writing down something that struck her interest. "What are you doing. Urahara-san?" Leaning over, she tried to peer onto the notepad, but Kisuke flipped it away from her, teasing her a bit.

"I will tell you in a minute…oh yeah by the way, your hair is getting into your ocha." Kisuke pointed toward her long wavy blonde hair, and brushed it out of the way of dipping into the liquid. Looking down, Yukino saw his hand gently graze her hair out of the way, and she looked up again, slowly sitting back. "Arigatou, Urahara-san. I am such a ditzy klutz sometimes."

There was no reply from Kisuke, but yet, as he began to write he looked up and observed her up and down, and quite frankly it began to bother her. "What? What is it?!?"

There was a slight silence, but he soon replied, looking at his notepad once more, "I usually can tell this stuff, but what are your sizes?" Yukino froze in place, not knowing what to say towards the abrupt question. But, she soon just began to speak anyway for the sake of whatever he was writing down. I mean he did promise to let her see it right? "B-83 W-58, H-86. They are in centimeters."

Kisuke nodded as a reply, writing down the sizes, only to stop in the middle of it and stare at her again. Yukino questioned him with another what, but this time he just looked down at his paper once more. "Um…about those sizes…I would rather say they were maybe 82, 59, 84. Yeah that sounds right." Yukino blushed in response. Even though she barely knew him, and the fact she was a little embarrassed to tell her sizes to a complete stranger, she did indeed tell him the wrong sizes, and yet, he was able to notice right off the bat she was lying.

"Yukino, while I am doing this you can talk about yourself. I am actually quite interested into hearing about you." Kisuke looked up from his writing, and smiled such a sweet and gentle smile. She could feel a slight chill run down her spine, and her stomach began to feel like someone was tickling the inside of it gently. The only reason she thought she felt like that was maybe because of the fact that she was never really smiled to like that before, or some other reasons she rather not even mention in her thoughts.

Yukino looked cautiously at him, and began to fidget about, knowing that he was asking a lot of questions for just meeting her. It was a little, how would you say, rushed for her tell absolutely everything about her. Nothing came out of her mouth though, which gave Kisuke the feeling that she didn't trust him. There was just a dead silence around them, and even Tessai, Jinta and Ururu were gone, and it was only them in the eating area.

Kisuke sighed, and looked up to her with eyes of disappointment. "Yukino, I understand if you don't trust me, but I promise you, I am someone who wouldn't spread anything personal that you didn't want publicized. I am not that kind of person. I am the kind of person who would use it against you. I am known for wrecking peoples lives like that." He smiled smugly, and whipped out his white fan and slowly brushed slow winds against his face, making his hair flutter slightly.

Yukino smiled slightly, but soon just looked off in the distance, and actually began to drift off into sleep. She felt like she was going to collapse on the floor, but she soon felt Kisuke's hand grab onto her should gently. Her eyes shot open, and she immediately made eye contact. "You know what? You can tell me later. How about you go take a nap. You must be tired still from yesterdays event."

She nodded, agreeing to his suggestion. Slowly, she watched as he closed his notepad, and they both rose at the same time. Kisuke held up the notebook and soon reassured Yukino, that the information he wrote down in it will be put to good use so she shouldn't worry too much. So with that, he watched as she walked to her room, sliding the paper door closed.

"Wow…this place can get pretty lonely when you have no one in the same room with you." Kisuke whimpered, as he began to drag his feet along his wooden hallway to get working. As he trotted down the hallway, he swore that when he passed Yukino's room he could hear her falling over something, making a loud thump that echoed through the room. Sighing, he began to continue walking thinking about how that Yukino was an odd thing for his hat to pick up, knowing that she was defiantly one of the world's biggest klutzes. But hey, he thought that was sort of cute.

"Hn, I might fall for her. I wouldn't mind that." He grinned slightly at his sentence, knowing at this rate, it would be quite possible, but that was just a thought anyway. Arriving at his door, he opened it slightly, and walked in slowly closing it behind him. Silence ran over the shouten once more.

xXxXxXxXxXx

Yukino winced her eyes open a little, and sat up to find herself in her futon again. Her eyes flung fully open as she began to notice that she slept almost the whole day away, as the sky was purely dark, leaving a eerie feeling in the room. It felt unusual to be somewhere that she was never use to, and as she began to sit up her stomach ached in even more pain. The wound was barely even healed, and yet it was killing her like she ate a Winnebago covered in hot sauce.

"How are you feeling?" Looking up she saw a foot come into the door and soon a full bodied figure. It was Kisuke yet again, and he was flipping his fan back in forth, for no apparent reason since it was already way too damn cold anyway. It probably was habit, but it was defiantly showed that he might have a lack of common sense (A/N: **I think I just bashed Kisuke…there is always a first I guess XD**)

Looking away from him for a moment, Yukino slightly sighed, and heard his gentle footsteps get closer, and soon just stop. In about two seconds, she noticed her whole futon flop up, directing her attention at Kisuke who had just plopped on her bed. Yukino covered herself up to her neck in her blankets and scooted away from him, "Are you trying to get intimate with me, for it is not working. To tell you the truth, I am not the slightly turned on. I feel like I ate a truck!"

Kisuke looked over to her and chuckled, "Whoa, you really do take first impressions quite harshly. I mean to me that thought seems a little perverted, don't cha' think?" He scooted over to her, but she just covered her face now, scooting away from him. Actually, she had scooted so far, that she literally fell off the futon, and landed a bit hard on the hard floor with her butt. Yukino groaned in pain, as her stomach also began to hurt at the same time as she tried to scoot herself back up, only leaving her tied up in the sheets now.

Kisuke became wide eyed as he saw her begin to fight, literally fight, with her bed sheets. She was biting them, and twisting them in many ways, only to leave her even more tangled than before. "Yukino-chan, you are a real klutz you know that. No offense, but I have never ever seen anyone fight so…" He stopped his sentence, as he noticed that Yukino had finally just given up, and she leaned forward, gently bumping her head on his arm. At this point, it felt as if he had knew her for all his life, for at that moment, for a spilt second, it felt like a spark had raised him, but only for a second.

"I think I might need some help." Yukino said with her eyes closed. Kisuke gladly agreed, as he put his fan down next to him, and put his arm on her shoulder, gently pulling the sheet, which was sort of around her like a toga. It took maybe about a minute for her to get untangled, but Yukino seemed to have become more interested in her pain in her stomach than anything else right now. From Kisuke's point of view, it looked like she was about to puke, but she did not. She didn't even want to complain to him that she was in pain. Maybe for the fact they only knew each other for about a day, or maybe the fact that she was always use to dealing with this situations by herself.

"Yukino, you do know that you are going to be staying here for about a month or two." Kisuke took off his hat and put it on her head, noticing that it made her look adorable, since well he had never let anyone wear his hat anyway. "I do know that the soul society will be looking for you, but quite frankly, I think you will do for a fine worker. Now for the gigai I made…" Kisuke felt something smack his right cheek, and he soon felt a hot pain come across it. Yukino had smacked him. It was a little surprising, for one Kisuke wouldn't of suspected it from her, and also the fact that this was a new record for him. He got smacked by two women in a matter of a day.

"So that is why you asked my sizes you pervert!" Yukino couldn't get it past her head that a gigai was a fake human body (even though it was exactly like hers) and the fact this man she barely knew made it for her. Her mind was actually fixated on the fact that this body was her body, and how he would just try to replicate that. It was like practically a blow up doll built for a man's pleasure. "I couldn't imagine the things you did to it!"

Kisuke almost laughed out loud for her ridiculous reaction. "You know your mind; it makes me wonder what thoughts go on in it. Quite frankly, it is ether the fact that you never have been touched by a man before, been near one, or you are a virgin. If you ask me, I think you are all." Yukino's jaw dropped, as she could feel her face just turn extremely red. It just grew in color that actually, I think it was so red that Crayola hasn't even created or named the color her face was.

"How…you…just…You are just stupid! What do you know!?!" She hit in the face with a pillow, and huffed up crossing her arms in rage and embarrassment. Yet, even though she smacked and hit him in the face with a pillow, Kisuke continued to laugh. "You know for someone who saved you, you really do treat them badly. Besides, I can tell that you probably are a virgin, or something close to it since well, one, you react and say things that I have feeling would only come from someone who would have a perverted brain, which are especially common in virgins. Two, you won't even let your own host comfort you when you are feeling ill. And three…"

He pointed to his face, and began to show a pair of sad eyes, joined with a couple of sniffling noises, "I have never been smacked by someone for making a gigai." He covered his face and sniffled a bit more like he was crying. Yukino began to calm down, and she actually began to feel bad for him, for she did treat him pretty bad. "I'm sorry Urahara-san. I should appreciate the fact that you made me a gigai." She smiled, and Kisuke peeked through one of his fingers.

"Well, that's good, because tomorrow you are going to start working in it. Can't have you mooching off of me. I have had too many people stay here without rent, so the gigai will do." He stood to his feet, and brushed off his haori, only to be replied with Yukino. "What do you mean? I can't work here. I have to go back to the soul society. I mean I am part of the 13 Court Guards."

Kisuke looked down, and began to notice that she was still wearing his hat. It still made her look so adorable, but he did have to take it from her, since well…it was the only one he had right now. "Well, could you take some brutal honesty?" Yukino nodded slowly, knowing that he didn't wan to surprise with some comment that was mostly true about her. She got a lot of the in the soul society. But she was probably use to it by now. "Well, if you are sure, I might as well be blunt. You suck as a soul reaper, and in your shihakushou, well that proved that you were in the fourth company. Now I know the fourth company are not fighters, but quite frankly, you suck at being a healer too. I mean, I practically had to heal you, and yet, you did nothing to heal yourself. I am really clueless onto the fact of how you got into the fourth company."

The brutal honesty left Yukino speechless, and in utter anger. How did he have the right to talk to her like that? "You do not have the right to say that to me!" Kisuke laughed, noticing that this girl had no clue who he was. But, I am sure she would find out sooner or later, and she would probably understand then, but until then, all he had to do was make her work for him.

Kisuke grabbed the hat on her head, and yet once more he had explained the legend of the hat, (A/N: **That sounds really funny doesn't it…?**) "This hat, I never did tell you what it does. When I found you that one time, when you fought that hollow yesterday, earlier in the day, this hat lead me to you. Then I lost it again, and you know what, I found you with it again. Now this hat I do not fool with cause every time it reappears it brings something special with it." Yukino felt wonderful actually, being called special. It has been a while since she was called that, and when he said it, she found a new emotion that she couldn't explain herself.

"Now, this might be the reason I am keeping you here, but, you never know what the future holds, Little Bird." He put the hat on his head, and began to walk away from her futon, leaving Yukino feeling a bit lonely. There was a little silence between the two, but as he just went out the door, he came back in and smiled, "Good night, Yukino-chan." Yukino smiled, and replied back to him in a sweet and calm voice, "Good night, Urahara-san."

"Don't call me that. That makes me sound old, and I get enough of that already. Call me Kisuke!" He grinned and waved good bye to her, and slowly closed the door. Yukino could hear his soft footsteps thump down the hallway, and soon she heard his door close, leaving the shouten in utter silence. "This must happen a lot at this time, because it is way to damn quiet for the sort of people who live here."

Sighing after her sentence, she stretched and slowly laid back. Her head rested on the pillow, and her eyes gradually closed. She began to hear crickets chirp in the backyard, and her body become relaxed. Before she had fallen into yet another deep slumber all she could think to herself was

_He looks so cute without that hat on!_

**YESH! I finally finished this chapter of utter hell! God this chapter I had to get assistants from Crystalline Dream because it was impossible for me to get a relationship going. But you know what, I think this chapter has turned into my favorite. To me Kisuke seems a little serious, but I tried my best to get his childish self out there. Anyway, I thank Crystalline Dream a whole bunch, and I also thank all of you who are going to review this chapter. I worked my ass off trying to make it less serious, and more romancey and funny, and yet this is the finished product. I truly hope you are enjoying it so far because there is more to come!!! Till next time my readers! –huggles-**

**Translations**

**Toritsuki – **Obsession. I only put it in Japanese cause each chapter is going to switch between Japanese and English, but anyway, it is a song called Obsession, and it is by the group See-Saw. If you have seen .Hack//Sign, you have heard it!

**Note: **Due to the fact I need to get back on track with updating, Crystalline Dream might write the next chapter. You people probably thought I was not updating because of school…well that is no. School doesn't get to me. I finish my work way before it is due, so I get by pretty well. Anyway, whatever may happen in the next chapter, you might get a taste of a different author for a change!


	5. Chapter 5 When the Sunset Turns Red

**A/N- Hello everyone! This is Crystalline Dream speaking, buddy and fellow writer of gaara'sonmymind! I shall be writing chapter five of Before the Snow Falls for her because she is having a severe case of writersblockosis and we have yet to find a cure. -shakes head solemnly- I can only hope she gets over it soon and get back to writing the great stories we all know and love. To start off, I write differently than your normal author, so this will be different. Plus, I owe her for writing two of my chapters, and giving me mountains of ideas. I loves her so, SO NO BASHING! Bash her, you mess with me. Get it? Got it? Good. ON WITH THE STORY!**

**Disclaimer: I, myself, nor gaara'sonmymind, own Bleach. It belongs to Tite Kubo and will stay that way until he gives it away in his will or something of the sorts¦ Anyhoo, we don't own it.**

**Chapter 5**

**When The Sunset Turns Red**

Morning came as any other did, sunlight shining on the snow covered ground and making it glisten in a pale glory. Early risers were the few who saw the magnificent dawn, along with one Urahara Kisuke.

He had gotten no sleep since the night before and was currently sitting on the roof of the shouten, staring languidly at the sunrise before him.

He had been up all night, contemplating his Little Bird. However, his mind was distracted by the sun and eventually fell asleep on the roof, snoring lightly under the morning rays.

xXxXxXxXx

It was around midmorning when Yukino awoke from her slumber, reluctantly remembering where she was this time. However, where she was wasn't nearly as important as the sounds coming from outside her room. Yukino was never a morning person and whichever poor soul was sent to wake her always walked away with a bruise. This morning was no different and she was mad that shouting woke her up.

"I swear, the people here are almost as rowdy as Kyosuke."

Her faced turned into a faint frown as she remembered the one named Kyosuke. From the looks of it, it seemed whoever it was, he was at least a friend, but not so close with Yukino. Not that it mattered to her right now, she was still in Kisuke's Shouten (which quite frankly, she had no clue where that REALLY was in Karakura) and as she began to sit up to see who was yelling and screaming outside of her paper door, she noticed a slight change in her movements.

It felt as if she was moving through water for a lake of better words. Her arms felt a little weak, and her legs moved slower then her brain told them to, but she still had the pain in her abdomen and not to mention her headache from the noise.

"Kisuke put me into this gigai when I was sleeping probably. God, he truly is a pervert isn't he."

She silently laughed at her own joke, knowing that she had no room to speak for herself. Of course, yes Kisuke was a pervert, but knowing him he probably wasn't that horrible of one to undress her and then dress her again as soon as she was put into that gigai. No doubt he had help, but the question was who?

She didn't think on it hard, but her brain was still in a cloud when she got out of bed, eyes half-mast and forced into an evil glare. She threw open her door and stomped into the hallway, searching for the source of the disturbance. She followed it to the main room, where she found three people shouting for Kisuke, one of them the man she had met earlier the day before. She stared for a moment before opening her mouth to shout.

"What is going on…Ack!"

True to her klutzy nature and inability to be a morning person, Yukino didn't see the raised board on the floor and ended up falling flat on her face. Her shout attracted the attention of all three of the others who crowded around her twitching body.

"Do you think she's alive?" Jinta asked rudely, grabbing a contently placed stick and poking her with it. There was silence before Yukino leapt up and smacked Jinta upside the head.

"Of course I'm alive you nitwit!!" she screeched, her eyes falling even more shut, "I'm just tired, is all..." She fell asleep once again, hitting the ground with a thud and curling into a little ball, smiling contently and murmuring about hitting little boys with red hair. All three stared at her strangely before Tessai decided to wake her.

"Miss," he said, shaking her lightly, "If you would please wake up…"

Yukino started awake, instinctually striking out at her awakener. Tessai caught her hand easily, glasses glinting proudly. Yukino was fully awake now, rubbing the last of the sleep out of her eyes with her free hand. She smiled awkwardly when she noticed Tessai, Jinta and Ururu.

"Um…Good morning?" she said tentatively, "Who are you again?" All three stared at Yukino incredulously. She could never remember anything she did before she was fully awake. Tessai released her hand as he stood up.

"I'm Tessai," he said, bowing to her a little as she stood up, "And this is Jinta and Ururu." He pointed to the two children. Jinta turned away grumpily, upset that she hit him. Ururu, however, smiled weakly and waved a little. Yukino returned the smile.

"I'm Yukino," she said, bowing as well, "It's a pleasure to meet you all." There was another awkward silence as they stared at each other.

"So,' Yukino said, breaking the silence, "Was there a serious reason as to why you all were shouting when I first woke up?" A sudden panic stricken look adorned all their faces and they began shouting for Kisuke again, returning to looking around the shouten for their lazy boss. Yukino just stared around for while, utterly at odds with the situation.

"We're looking for Kisuke-san," Tessai clarified when he passed her, "He's not in his room and he usually doesn't just up and disappear for no reason." Yukino nodded in understanding, though not really understanding at all. If he was their boss, wouldn't he come back, she speculated. She sat in ponderful silence until she got bored, not to mention hungry. She decided to wait for her new acquaintances to finish their search before complaining, but her stomach had other ideas.

_Growl!_ She blushed furiously when everyone stared at her oddly. She smiled shyly. "I guess I'm hungry," she stammered, face red as an overripe tomato. Tessai nodded and headed off to make breakfast for their new guest. That left Ururu and Jinta alone with Yukino and another awkward silence ensued. The three just stared at each other, no one saying anything and situation only becoming more awkward.

"What have we here?" All three jumped and turned towards the sudden voice. All three found themselves staring at a black cat. Yukino's eye twitched before she leapt into the air, grabbing a broom. She glared at the black cat before bringing down the broom hard.

"Black cats are bad luck!!" she screeched, trying over and over to hit the poor thing, "Get it out!!" She blindly smashed around her, trying to hit the creature.

"Stop it! I'm human you know!!" Yukino froze and stared strangely at the cat. The cat glared at her before leaping onto one of the shelves. "That's better. Now, my name is Shihouin Yoruichi. And that was my tail you almost smashed!" Yukino blushed and bowed repeatedly, stuttering her apologies. However, once again, Yukino's bad luck (Ha!) intervened and she smacked her face on the broom handle.

"Kami above!" she shouted, clutching the now red dot on her forehead, "That hurt like Hell!" Instantly, she clapped a hand over her mouth and looked sheepishly down at Jinta and Ururu.

"Sorry for swearing!" she said sheepishly, "Bad habit of mine!" Jinta just shook his head while Ururu graciously accepted the apology. Yoruichi sighed, watching as Yukino tried in vain to look at the growing red spot on her head. Yoruichi was certainly worried about Yukino's motives, though presently, Yukino didn't seem much of a threat. Still, Yoruichi remained wary of the new guest at the shouten.

"Breakfast is served!" Tessai burst into the room, holding a HUGE platter of rice and chicken, both steaming and fresh out of the cooker! Yukino's stomach growled loudly again when she caught a whiff of the delicious looking food.

"Dibs!" she shouted, leaping at Tessai. She snatched up the biggest bowl and began wolfing it down, finishing before the others even got their own bowls. When she was done, rice covered her face and she was grinning proudly, holding up her bowl for seconds. Everyone sweat dropped at her enthusiasm but Tessai gave her another bowl, all of them watching in amazement as she scarfed down her second bowl before burping contentedly.

"Man she can eat!" Jinta exclaimed, poking Yukino's currently inflated belly. Yukino glared at him before smacking him again, making him whine about abuse of minors. Yukino snorted before handing her bowl to Tessai.

"Thank you very much for the food, Tessai-san!" she said, attempting a bow in her bloated state. However, Tessai managed to stop her before she fell over. Yukino waited patiently while the others ate, watching Yoruichi the closest of all. It was odd to her to see a cat eating out of a bowl just like everyone else. Yoruichi could sense her staring and locked eyes with her.

"It's rude to stare you know," she said, making Yukino blush furiously and look away. Yoruichi only sighed and returned to eating. However, after a few minutes, she felt a gaze on her once again and looked up to find Yukino staring at her once more. She shrugged it off, returning to eating her food peacefully. When the stare didn't lift, Yoruichi began to get seriously annoyed.

"Can I help you with something?" she snapped, turning a wrathful glare on Yukino, "If not, please stop staring." Yukino flushed a brilliant shade of red before turning to her fingers. There was silence before Yukino looked up again.

"How can you talk?" she blurted out, "Aren't you a normal cat?"

Yoruichi sighed, knowing that this wasn't going to be the first nor the last time she got asked this question. Actually, she was quite surprised that she didn't even overreact to her talking, seeing how a talking cat was a little unusual. Not to mention, the fact that she just reacted over her fur being black, supposedly meaning bad luck, was what surprised her the most. "Well, Yukino-san, I rather not show you _why _I can talk, for the last time…"

Tessai raised his hand for her to stop, blushing in an embarrassed manner. Not to mention Jinta as well, who besides raise his hand, lowered his head in embarrassment. "Well, let's just say, that they didn't take my true form too well." That was practically an inside joke between Yoruichi and herself. Oh the irony of being able to embarrass so many men with a little bit of nudity.

Minutes passed, and soon enough the room was cleared, and Jinta and Ururu were sent to sweep the basement, as Tessai set off to restock. Yoruichi said she would be gone for a couple of hours, and soon left Yukino all by herself. In her mind, Yukino could sense that Yoruichi didn't like her that much, which sort of confused her a bit knowing that she barely, knew the cat in the first place.

"Well, I guess I should go searching for Kisuke on my own. But first…"

Yukino walked towards her room, and opened the door. Nothing was as boring as walking into a room completely empty, but there was an up to this time. There was a little note left for her that she missed this morning laying next to her bed, reading on the front _"Little Bird"._

Picking it up, full of curiosity, Yukino already knew it was from Kisuke. I mean, she had no clue why he called her Little Bird, but it was a cute name and she liked it. Just thinking about it, made her cheeks turned a faint red. It was actually really sweet of him to leave her a note beside her bed. So thoughtful, and yet it was so charming. So, without further thought, she opened it, only to be surprised by something completely different.

"What!?! I list of chores!"

xXxXxXxXxXx

Cleaning, dusting, sweeping, washing, organizing you name it. It wasn't that much, but yet, Kisuke did say that she would work, but not like this. At first though, you might think she is over exaggerating, but seriously. She was asked to wash at least, and I literally mean at least, ten baskets full of laundry. And it didn't end there. She had to sweep the whole house, wash a sink full of dishes that literally had the food cemented on them, and dusting shelves that turned from gray to red with one sweep of a cloth.

"Totally ridiculous. This guy is insane. He just took me from my regular job just so he can have free labor. What an asshole."

Even though these cruel words came pouring out of her mouth, she didn't really mean them. Quite frankly, even though she only knew Kisuke for at least two days, she already considered him a friend. Even though she still barely even knew what he really did, or why he had this shouten. Quite frankly, she didn't even want to know why he had the shouten, for the stuff she found was quite interesting. Hazardous would fit that sentence better actually. Hazardous, yet interesting, merchandise.

Sighing as she finished one more chore, she checked that one off, and then looked at the list to find she had one left. "Sweep the porch in the back. Shouldn't take long!" There was a little heart next to the word 'long', and Yukino smiled a tad. How cute could he get!

"Well, okay if that is it, then I will do that, and search for Kisuke."

No doubt he was probably getting hungry, which knowing him, would give him a good enough reason to come home. So, on with her chore, she picked up her broom, and walked towards the door that was towards the back. Opening slowly she found that it went outside, and it seemed completely normal. Nothing out of the ordinary.

She walked out into a backyard that had very little space to walk around at all, and not to mention barely any plant life. Instead of grass there were rocks and probably not even a bonsai tree would fit in the tiny space where there could be plants. Also, a giant fence stood before her, and was probably four feet taller then her, blocking almost the whole view of Karakura from the back.

She sighed, and shrugged. "Well, might as well get started."

As she began to sweep, birds flew above her head, chirping a sweet tune as they flew back and forth from the roof to a tree in the neighbor's yard. Yukino looked up and watched them as they flew back and forth, and it actually sparked her curiosity.

"I wonder if they are building a nest"

Smiling, she put down the broom, and saw that there was a ladder close to her that lead to the roof. Climbing up the ladder was pretty easy, and even getting on the roof was easy too. It was surprising that she didn't have a klutz moment, especially with the ladder. Klutzes and ladders do not go together.

Anyway, Yukino stood on the shingles, and walked towards where the birds were flying, which was the far off end of the roof covering the right side. Walking on the shingles showed some problem with her weak legs, so she began to crawl on the roof, getting slowly closer. Birds flew away as she finally looked around the corner and saw what the so called 'nest' was.

Kisuke was fast asleep on the roof, and the birds were using him as a perch. Scooting closer to him, she began to giggle as a bird landed on his shoulder, and he didn't even move from his deep slumber. His face was relaxed, and he was holding a cane close to him as if it was protecting him some how.

His hat was lying on the other side of him, and Yukino slowly began to lean over him to reach for the hat. As she began to scoot further, trying not to awake him, she began to feel a tug on her pant leg. Her pants were caught on a nail, and she couldn't get free from the caught fabric. Pulling slightly, she tried to break free but it didn't work as she cursed under breath.

"Come on…why does this always happen to me?"

She spoke to herself, but then suddenly, it became free. It was such a surprise to her, that she lost balance on her arms, and literally fell on top of Kisuke's chest. Within seconds Kisuke's eyes flew open and he began to cough at his wake up call. But it didn't stop there. As he finally got his attention, the both of them began to slide down the roof, which would then lead onto the hard rocky ground. As friction wasn't on their side, the both began to fall letting gravity pull them back to Earth.

Yukino screamed, gripping onto Kisuke's clothing that wrapped around his shoulders. Her body became extremely close to his as he put his arms around her waist and back, as he showed he wanted to dull the fall for her. The both of them gripped onto each other tighter as they could see the ground getting closer, but, suddenly, something extremely cold consumed their bodies.

The both of them landed into a pile of snow that seemed to have collected right where they had landed. The odd thing was that Yukino could feel the snow on her elbows a bit, and slightly on her legs, but the rest of her was warm and dry. Yukino didn't even notice until she finally felt Kisuke shivering under her that she had landed on top of him and not in the most, how should I put this, just friend's sort of way.

"Well, this is an interesting turn of events." Kisuke chuckled as Yukino's face turned beat red at her embarrassment. Since Kisuke knew her enough that she wasn't really use to being this close to any man at all, it was just precious to see her embarrassed because of it. "I am so sorry Ki…Kisuke." She began to stutter as she moved off of him, and slowly got to her feet. Since she was extremely embarrassed by her klutzy move, her landing position, and not to mention the fact that it was Kisuke who happened to be there, she couldn't even think straight, and the cold air was getting to her.

Kisuke stood to his full height and picked up his cane and hat that had dropped from the roof and landed to the side of the pile of snow they landed in. Putting his hat in his hand and his cane in the other, he began to shiver as a cold breeze ran across his wet back making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. "My, it sure gets cold!"

Yukino looked behind her and saw Kisuke shivering; his hands rubbing his arms as he tried to warm himself up. She smiled slightly as Kisuke stopped warming up and took off haori and shook it in the wind. The green clothe had a giant wet spot on the back, and she noticed that Kisuke felt the wet spots all over his gi that made him as twice as cold as he was right now. He sighed, and looked towards Yukino, "Well, Little Bird…I guess I have to change."

Yukino smiled, and turned her head. Walking slowly towards the front of the shouten, Jinta was heard opening the entrance, and Tessai and Ururu were arranging merchandise into a stylish manner. Yukino stopped at the corner and waited for Kisuke who walked slowly up to her. He spoke to her as he came closer, but Yukino looked up at his face, and got a glance of his silver gray eyes. Her stomach made a little fuzzy feeling like she was on one of those free falling rides, and she swore her heart skipped a beat. Yukino was memorized in his eyes, and it was like a trance. They seemed so peaceful, and yet she couldn't even explain why she was feeling this way. _What? This feeling is confusing. I never felt it before, but…I enjoy it._

Yukino lost her train of thought, and became lost in his eyes. She didn't even notice that he began to wave his hand in front of her face. "Yukino-chan, you in there? Hello?" Like a flame on a candle, the emotion and sensation disappeared in the wind. She sneezed, letting out a slight whimper.

"Oh my, are you alright?"

Yukino looked up at Kisuke and nodded. _I guess I am getting cold. Maybe that is why I felt like that…_

Kisuke stood in front of her, and put the back of his hand towards her forehead. Yet again, Yukino felt that emotion, and the sensation in her stomach returned. Her eyes tried not to make contact with his, leaving her to close them slowly, relaxing her muscles that seemed to tense at his sudden touch.

"Oh wow, you might be running a fever." His hand came off of her head, and she sighed slightly. At the words fever, her body seemed to weaken and she slightly looked up to Kisuke, "I think I am just getting use to being a in a gigai that is all. My body isn't fully immune to the cold air and sicknesses here." Kisuke chuckled as he did know that is completely impossible for that to actually be true, but he decided to let it slide.

"Whatever you say Yukino-chan. Anyway, if you feel really bad later, I will gladly give you some medicine. Just remember, don't go to Tessai. Actually, don't even mention you feel a bit under the weather to him." Yukino's eyes became wide, and she nodded to his warning. Imagining Tessai giving her medicine seemed like a nice idea, but from Kisuke's words it sounded like Tessai would be giving you arsenic.

Kisuke smiled a bit, as he put his hat back on his head. Yukino looked up to his face, and saw the shadow of the bucket shaped hat covering his eyes, leaving her a little bit disappointed. "Well, I will be inside Yukino-chan. I need to take a hot shower and probably put on some new clothes anyway, so see you in a bit." He put his hand up to her head, and slowly patted her sandy blonde hair.

Now, even though Yukino couldn't see his eyes, it seemed that Kisuke was no having a bit of the same reaction she had towards him. There was a bit of silence as Kisuke seemed to keep his hand on her head, which began to slightly stroke her hair, leaving Yukino's face a bit flushed. Even though this lasted for a bit of five seconds to Yukino and Kisuke it seemed to last hours. They were both in a trance, lost in each others eyes, making them both feel oddly strange.

A loud bang was heard from the front of the store, as it seemed Jinta had opened the garage like metal door. At this moment, Kisuke and Yukino both shot back to reality, and Kisuke's hand shot back into its regular position like it wasn't even caressing her head in the first place. And soon after, Kisuke sneezed as Yukino did.

"Oh wow, I must be catching your cold!" Kisuke shook his head as the sneeze left his head in a dizzy state. Yukino giggled, and Kisuke's mouth slightly formed a grin. With the clack on his geta, he slowly walked toward the front of his shop, and soon was glomped by Jinta and Ururu who both seemed to miss him, probably making up some story in there head that he probably crash landed in Djibouti , Africa.

Yukino could hear all the giggling and such from her standing point, and she decided not to go in the front for she didn't want to ruin the moment. So walking down the side of the shouten, her footsteps slightly crunched on the rocks, and her hand was on the wall for some support on the unstable ground. Her thoughts ran through her head, as she could tell that the sensations and feelings she and Kisuke had back there were defiantly not from a cold.

**Gaara'sonmymind here. Sorry this took forever, but this chapter was really hard to write. Half of it was actually written by me, well actually more then half. Crystalline Dream wrote the other half, and I thank her lots for that! Anyway, I am posting this chapter late at night yet again, for I tried finishing it earlier but I wasn't able to. Sadly, I am actually able to finish it now since Bleach won't be on till another hour and half! Damn you Adult Swim for changing your whole schedule for Death Note! **

**Please R&R! Also please tell me if you liked this chapter, for it is almost impossible to get the loving tension in the first couple of chapters of romances. –sigh- Anyway, next chapter should be up next Saturday! YEAH!**

BTW: This chapter is named after a song called When The Sunset Turns Red by Scoobie Do. Very good song, and one of my favorite J-Pop songs.

P.S. – Birds can't build nests in winter…shows how much common sense Yukino has! XD


	6. Chapter 6 Kiseki

**This chapter took me a while to write, and it is a bit longer then the other chapters, but it is a really good one…well I think so anyway. So, when you are done reading, REVIEW! For, well, I have a new thing now, that if I don't get four or five reviews per chapter I will not update until I do. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, but if I did I would name the Arrancars "The Running Cars" for every time I try to pronounce that word it comes out 'a running car'!**

**Chapter 6**

**Kiseki**

Yukino swept the last of the dust off the ground in the storage room, putting the remains into an empty dust pan. It was getting mighty cold lately, and as she kneeled down, she cold feel the urge to scratch her skin under the wool sweater. It was given to her the day before, and well, she didn't really have the guts to tell Tessai that his sweater material itched like hell. Actually, to be correct, this sweater was pretty...umm...how to put this sweetly. Repulsively and utterly the ugliest article of clothing known to man kind. It was green and pink stripped, and the collar of the shirt was so stretched out that it slid down her shoulder exposing her bra straps and bare skin, making her even colder then she already was.

Knowing that she had to deal with it, since she was practically here for no reason at all, she had to rely on any clothing she could get at this point. Even if it was like the sweater she was wearing right now. So, as she opened a trash can to throw away some of the dust bunnies she had herded, she began to notice that she was actually starting to call this shouten her home. Actually, she had been here for quite sometime. Not months worth, but just enough that she lost count of how long she actually had been here.

It was homey, and she enjoyed the warm feeling she got in every room she traveled in. Actually, by now, she enjoyed doing her chores and seeing everyone everyday. Well, even though Jinta called her Yuki, and Ururu always held her hand down hallways because she knew that she would trip or fall over something, and Tessai giving her the ugliest clothes in the world, giving the idea that he didn't really care about her was a bit of a hit to the ego, she still was fond of it greatly.

But besides that, her life here was something of a blessing. She wasn't in danger anymore, and well, even though she didn't know it, she was always being watched in case she would hurt herself. Yukino always sensed Kisuke's presence behind her when she would be dealing with knives of some sort, cooking appliances, or anything that could put her in danger. She never really noticed, since well Kisuke was probably so sly that he could rob the White House, but she always blushed greatly when she got a quick glance of him watching her. It was cute, and she enjoyed it since she never got that much attention anyway.

Thinking of this at this moment, she reminded of herself of the day that that funny sensation took over her. Her mind set on this thought, knowing that on that day she thought that she only had that sensation for the slight feeling of a cold coming on. Quite frankly, she was wrong. Deep down, she was trying not to accept the fact that she was beginning to form a crush for Kisuke. It was completely normal for her to from crushes over a short period of time, but she didn't know how to handle this one. She barely knew Kisuke at all, and well, in her mind she doubted he felt the same way. Also, she never expected in all her years, she might fall for some guy who actually made fun of her for being a virgin, kept her in his house/shouten just for some…'hat legend', and made her do completely useless chores.

"This is just getting too weird…"

Yukino blinked sleepily as she began to lean against a wall in a far off room away from the rest of the house. The day was a lazy one, and her chores were up for today and there were many hours to get something done. Nothing came to mind though, and well, all she had to do was lean against the wooden wall behind her, occupied by the site of a clean room.

"Well, I see that you are still here. Kisuke still didn't give you up?"

From the corner of her eye, Yukino spotted a black short figure walking silently across the wooden floors. "Oh, hello there Yoruichi-san!" Yukino put her hand up in a friendly jester (just like something Kisuke would do) and smiled at the small figure of Yoruichi. But all she got in return was a stern glare.

"You're wearing my jeans you know?"

Wide eyed, Yukino looked down at her legs, and saw the dark colored jeans snuggly fit around her thighs and calves. In utter confusion, she pointed at the jeans and looked back up at Yoruichi, "But…cats don't wear pants. Unless…you do Yoruichi, which I would then consider getting a much smaller size." A slight crick was heard on the hard wood floor, but they paid no attention to it as Yoruichi jumped up next to Yukino on the counter she was standing next to.

"My, you sure are dense. I swear by now you would have figured it out…"

"Figured out what? That you wore pants?" (**A/N: **Sounds like something I would say! XD)

"You really are as thick as a brick, aren't you?"

"Well, sometimes it good to be thick as a brick. And I am not thick; I just don't understand how a cat can wear pants. I mean, I have seen dogs wear pants, humans, monkeys, but not cats."

Yukino ended her sentence, and began to notice a slight chuckle coming from before her. In the entrance, leaning against the hem of the doorframe was Kisuke, wearing something different for a change. He had actual modern clothes on, which considered of a pair of old ripped up baggy jeans, along with a baggy sweater that went to his lower waist. The sweater was horizontally stripped black and red, and it was probably dug out of his closet since it seemed quite old. But, that didn't matter…Kisuke in modern clothes actually didn't bother Yoruichi that much since, even though she barely saw him like that, it didn't matter since she knew him too well. Yukino on the other hand was actually feeling like her knees were going to buckle in on her.

That funny sensation was there again, but yet stronger. She felt like she was going to explode with emotion at how good he looked in her eyes, and she could feel her face heating up with embarrassment at her stunned state. Distraction left her body completely unable to figure out what it was doing, and as she became deep in the sensation, she didn't even notice that her foot slipped on the wall she was supporting herself on with. She immediately snapped back to reality, but after her foot hit the floor, the other foot lost it footing and she fell to her right straight into a bucket trash can. (**A/N: **I said foot a bit too many times in that sentence, didn't I?)

"Oh, are you alright?"

Yukino heard Kisuke's voice soft and sweet as she looked up to find him helping her out of the trash can that seemed to permanently attach itself to her butt. Nothing was as embarrassing as this, but Kisuke didn't mind. He was use to it by now. But, that wasn't the main reason…the main reason was…

Kisuke removed the trash can and soon put it back onto the floor. As he did this, he looked slightly to the area where Yukino was and he immediately got a view of her rear about two feet away from his face. In his head, he wouldn't deny the fact that her ass was nothing to be ashamed of, but seeing how he was looking at her that way was a bit different. _If I keep on doing stuff like this…I might as well declare myself having a…_ He did not continue the sentence in his head, but let's just say, he meant to put the 'c' word there. (I think you know what word I am talking about…c-r-u-s-h….)

"Kisuke…are you alright?"

Yukino looked down, and fully turned around, facing Kisuke. In return, he stood straight up, and looking straight into his eyes, she found no answer. All he did was nod, and soon after that, he walked past her into the middle of the room. A bit of silence cast over the room, and all that could be heard was Jinta screaming at Ururu in a different room about not playing some board game called 'Monopoly' right.

"Both of you," Kisuke had turned around and pointed at both of them with a smile on his face, "I want you (Yukino) to wait with me, and you (Yoruichi) to get ready, for we are all going out!" Even though he did not have his fan out at that very moment, it was quite easy to visualize himself hiding behind it while saying this sentence; smiling a sly grin.

Yukino stood in confusion as Kisuke left the room, and watched as Yoruichi exited towards the right muttering how this was going to be quite an experience…

xXxXxXxXxXx

"Yoruichi…you…"

As the three of them walked, Yukino couldn't stop being so distracted by a fully grown woman with purple hair and dark skin, dressed in a purple sweat shirt, and dark blue jeans following beside them.

"You…can turn…into a cat! That is awesome!"

Yoruichi glared at her and sniggered in what seemed disgust. Yukino waited for some other reply, but yet felt like Yoruichi was giving her the cold shoulder by scooting away from her and going onto the other side of the three. Silence came over them, and Yukino's excited feeling went down with it. _Why does she hate me so?_

She pondered this thought as they traveled through town, with Kisuke leading them. He was humming softly the tune to the song 'Sweety' by 'Clazziquai Project', while passing many people and stores. The two beside him had no idea why they really did tag along; most likely for the fact that Kisuke always had some weird plan up his sleeve. In any case though, whatever he had in mind, it wasn't going to be a waste of time.

Yukino looked at the bare trees as they walked, and sited beautiful winter festive decorations. It was a wonder how people were always so happy at this time of the year, celebrating winter festivals and holidays. In the spirit world, she was never delighted like she was right now at this time of the year. It was cold, and everyone had a depressing vibe around them, making you feel unhappy at such a blissful time.

"We're here…oomph." Yukino had bumped into Kisuke on accident, not noticing that he had stopped. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Yukino apologize to him while blushing yet again at her embarrassment. Kisuke smiled, showing somewhat of how he felt of Yukino, yet at the same time, still appearing as a mystery to his feelings. On the other hand, while the two stood there like that, Yoruichi watched from the side seeing how something was beginning to form between them. It was defiantly obvious, even to the people walking by.

Looking away from the two at this point, she began to wonder if Kisuke's idea of the hat was actually true. From the looks of things, it was defiantly working out fine from what he predicted, but there was a certain draw back to it. Yoruichi wasn't jealous of Yukino, no way; Kisuke was just like a brother to her. It had nothing to do with the way she was acting, because she was jealous. Yoruichi was just protecting Kisuke, knowing that when you least expect it, something could happen that could break his heart. In all of her years, she would never want to see Kisuke upset ever again.

xXxXxXxXxXx

The shop they had walked into was a thrift store, and the entrance was littered with racks of used clothes of every decent. Kisuke had picked many weird places, but yet again, this was yet another place that he said his 'hat' had found. From the looks of things, it was just like any other thrift store, and nothing was unusual about it. Well, nothing unusual about it, yet.

Yukino stood in the middle of the lobby/entrance of the place, and stood next to Yoruichi who was eyeing Kisuke.

"Okay, you two. I want the both of you to get along and maybe find something nice. Believe me, this place has everything."

Kisuke said this to the both of them, and Yoruichi walked off immediately into the far end of the store after he spoke his last word. Watching her walk away, Yukino fidgeted a little bit and felt uncomfortable shopping with her, but that all changed when she felt warm hands on her shoulders. Against her ear, Kisuke's warm breathe beat against her soft skin, and he began to speak to her in a whisper, making her shiver.

"Don't worry, Yoruichi doesn't hate you. Just go over there and talk to her."

Yukino turned her head slightly, meeting her eyes with Kisuke's bluish gray tinted ones. Slightly grinning at him, she nodded to his advice, and with a step, she walked steadily towards Yoruichi, who stood in front of the used blouses. Her thoughts were ecstatic right now, and as she took in a deep breath, she hoped for the best outcome. (since well, with Kisuke forcing her over to someone who despises her, you never may know the outcome!)

From behind, she could feel Kisuke's eyes watching her, making it seem like he was guiding her onto talking to Yoruichi. Without even thinking about it, Yukino slightly turned around, checking if Kisuke was still there. Indeed he was, and soon after she did that, he waved towards her, mouthing the word 'go' through his smiling teeth. With a bit of hesitation, she stepped forward walking at a humanly pace, relaxing herself with deep breaths.

Everything seemed to be going fine, and as she passed the last aisle to get to the blouse section, she felt as if she could do it…if only someone didn't run out of the aisle beside her, crashing a shopping cart into her hip, making her fall on her butt.

"Oh, I am so sorry! I am in a rush!"

Yukino winced in pain, as she defiantly knew that that was going to leave a bruise. Slightly opening one eye, she looked to find that the person who banged into her was long gone, and people just staring at her for lying on the floor like a total weirdo.No one helped her up, nor even attempted, and she just sighed as she knew that Kisuke was all the way across the store. So, as she got to her feet, she brushed off her jeans, and looked to her side to find that Yoruichi was glaring at her.

Walking over to her, Yukino tried to nip this thing in the bud, but was just ignored as Yoruichi walked the other way. "Yoruichi-san…may…may I ask you something?" Without an answer, Yukino waited patiently, and stood there waiting for some sort of reply.

"Put your arms out."

Yukino eye balled Yoruichi, "My arms…why?"

"Just put them out."

She did so, only to be greeted with a pile of clothes. Yoruichi told her to hold them, and pass them to her as she called for each one in the dressing room. It was a dead silence as she did this, and Yukino could feel her arms getting tired as the she stood there. "Please, Yoruichi-san, may I ask you something?"

Yet no answer again. Yukino waited for her precious answer through the whole pile of clothes, which soon just found themselves back on the blouse rack. Feeling the blood rush into her arms again, Yukino attempted once more, "May I ask you-" "What is it?" From the tone of Yoruichi's voice is seemed as if she was a little annoyed, and Yukino couldn't help but feel even more nervous next to her.

"I want to ask you, do you hate me Yoruichi-san? And if you do, please tell me why?"

Yukino waited for the answer, and saw Yoruichi turn around and make eye contact with her for the first time she was in her true form,

"Do I hate you? No. I do not hate you."

"Then why do you treat me like you do?"

There was a pause, and Yoruichi sighed as she saw that Yukino wanted to know, and she would keep on asking until she got her answer. Looking away, and then looking back, Yukino soon noticed that Yoruichi had changed her expression from annoyed to a more calm and understanding expression.

"You have a crush on Kisuke, and don't even try to deny that."

Yoruichi smiled a bit at her words as she saw that Yukino blushed to her statement, making it true enough to anyone. Watching Yukino's reaction to anything was a bit funny, seeing how she was a klutzy ditz, but she also was a klutzy ditz with feelings, and Yoruichi knew that she deserved the whole story behind why she was treating her the way she was.

"You are blushing, so I will defiantly take that as a yes. Now, you may not know it, but I notice it. Kisuke is my one and only good friend that I have, and have had through my whole life, and I can read him like the back of my hand. As you do, he as well has a crush on you."

Yukino almost choked on her own spit as she tried to swallow at Yoruichi's words. Her face was probably, yet again, the color of a tomato, for the fact that she, Yoruichi, would notice such a thing. "You…you…he…he…he has a…how can you tell?"

Yoruichi laughed, and walked a bit to her left, waving for Yukino to follow her. Feeling less tension between the two, Yukino gladly walked with her, knowing that Yoruichi was defiantly beginning to warm up to her. The both of them walked a bit, and soon got to a little corner, away from the other customers in the bustling store.

"You see, the reason I can tell, is that, way back when I was younger, he use to crush on me all the time. He would act the way he is acting now. You know, watching you from behind a corner, making sure that you can't see him, or maybe doing something nice like this."

Yukino began to fidget with her hands as Yoruichi talked with her like this. It was a bit odd for her to feel for someone like she did right now, for everyone she had a crush on, they never liked her back. Sadly, she wouldn't consider herself ever having a love life, for she either would be too ditzy to be around, or the people she knew would already have someone to have as their own. Yukino was not always alone in the soul society, she had a friends. Okay, she did feel lonely every once in a while when everyone would talk about their love lives, and she had nothing to talk about. Quite frankly, she would just leave when it got to the…you know…personal love life conversation, as she knew that they would defiantly giggle at her for being inexperienced.

"Now, Kisuke, as my good friend, is someone that I care for deeply."

"I understand that Yoruichi-san. Are you treating me like this for you think I am not good enough for Kisuke?"

Yoruichi chuckled a bit, and looked Yukino straight in the eyes, ready to answer her question, "The reason I have been treating you like the way I have been is because, no, not because I think you are not good enough for him, I just think that you might break Kisuke's heart. You don't understand what Kisuke has been through, and I wouldn't want anything in the world to see him mentally and physically break down. He doesn't deserve something that horrible…never again…"

Yoruichi seemed to be distracted by the thoughts that just crossed her mind. She did not speak, but Yukino soon broke the silence, "I would never hurt Kisuke like that. I am too dedicated to something I do, to do cause something like that to happen." The tone in her voice echoed off the close walls, and Yoruichi could tell that she was serious and telling the truth.

The both of them stood there, and as a long period of time passed, Yukino could see that Yoruichi was beginning to tolerate her more. By now, she felt a little bit more comfortable around her, and she at least felt like she could be her friend. Yoruichi could feel it too, and well, she knew that Yukino wasn't that bad of a person to do something like that, she just wanted to get the point across. Truthfully, she was very protective of Kisuke, for she had a tendency now for some reason to make a situation of his a little less lighter on his shoulders by helping him.

Yoruichi stood there, running through her thoughts, just thinking of a sentence to say, even though she had nothing else to add to the conversation. Her eyes were looking away from Yukino, and she was focusing on a coat rack about 50 feet away that was now occupied by some elderly man, who seemed to be shopping with his wife and daughter. She smiled at the site, but soon felt arms around her, making her train of thought disappear. Her eyes looked down to her waist, and saw that Yukino was hugging her.

"I am so glad you don't hate me! I truly hope now we can become good friends!'

Yoruichi heard these words come out of Yukino's mouth as she smiled up towards her, giving sense of happiness.

xXxXxXxXxXx

"What did you get?!?! Did you get me anything, huh?"

It was around nightfall now, and the three of them arrived at the shouten only to be greeted by a very greedy and excited Jinta. He was jumping around Yukino, looking into her plastic bag that had a yellow smiley face on it, with the words 'Have A Good Day' written in blue lettering on the bottom of the bag.

"Jinta, I told you before we left that we were shopping for Yuki-chan."

_Great he is calling me it now…_Yukino sulked a bit as now Kisuke was calling her Yuki, making her feel even more embarrassed about her name being so close to a guy's. She sighed, and walked past Jinta and soon scooted into her room, sliding the door behind her. As she could hear everything settling down on the other side of the rice paper door, she walked over to the middle of the room, and dropped everything in her bag on the floor.

Everything that Kisuke had bought her considered of the essentials and some random clothing that she liked the look of. Her shirts were mostly long sleeved, and she mostly had khaki pants that were a bit baggy around her lower legs. Quite frankly, she liked the assortment of clothes, and enjoyed going to the thrift store with Kisuke and Yoruichi.

As she thought of this, she was putting on one of her new used (**A/N: **OXYMORON TIME! XD) sweaters which was a light blue woolen sweater that fit her perfectly. Smiling at how snug she was in the article of clothing, she began to wonder what to do next. It was a bit to early for her to sleep, and they already ate when they were out.

"Hey, you okay in there?"

Yukino turned around to see that Tessai was standing on the other side of her door, and she walked over to it, opening it to see him standing right there in front of her. As she looked up to see his face, she smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, I am fine. Why do you ask Tessai-san?"

"Oh well, Kisuke-san wants to see you. He is outside somewhere."

Yukino watched as Tessai soon left after she got her message. Walking on the wooden floor, she listened to her feet clumping on the ground, and as she did this she began to sing to one of her favorite songs that she heard many years before she came here.

"_Blues skies to forever, the green grass blows in the wind, dancing. It would be a much better site, with you, with me. If you hadn't met me, I'd be fine on my own, baby. Never felt so lonely-_"

"Is that you singing, my Little Bird?"

Yukino was outside of the shouten now, noticing that she was singing throughout her whole walk towards Kisuke. His voice was coming from above, and she turned around to see him sitting on top of the roof right next to a pile of snow. It was the first time that she ever really sung outside of some sort of solitude, and knowing that Kisuke heard her, she felt a bit embarrassed. She wouldn't consider herself that good at all, and well, letting Kisuke hear her was just horrible.

"Kisuke…" She gasped his name in a little whisper, but soon continued on, "Kisuke, Tessai-san told me that you wanted to see me."

Kisuke smiled, and soon thumped the roof next to him with his hand. "Come up here, and take a seat."

As she climbed up there, she sat about an inch away from Kisuke, feeling a little of his body heat radiating against her. Pulling her legs up to her chin, she sighed as she looked out into the night sky, just watching as light snow began to fall.

"So, Yukino, I see that you got along with Yoruichi fine. What did you say to make her warm up to you?"

Yukino shifted her eyes towards Kisuke's, and she paused at his question.

"I...we had a lot in common." A bit of a lie, but Yukino knew that it was still true in a sense. A gust of wind began to blow, and soon after that Yukino felt goose bumps form on her skin under the sweater. Looking over to her, Kisuke could see her shivering under her clothing, making him feel he needed to do something.

"Yukino, you look chilly. Come here, I will help you warm up."

Yukino looked at Kisuke with surprised eyes, but soon scooted closer to Kisuke feeling his warms arms wrap around her. To make herself comfortable, she cuddled into his chest, and rested her head there, literally using him as a pillow. Everything in her seemed to fill with happiness as she felt her body warm up against his. It was comforting, to be this close to him without being offensive, and she enjoyed it so much that she relaxed her whole body, and closed her eyes, just listening to his gentle heart beat.

As she seemed to be dosing off a bit, Kisuke began to stroke her head with his callused yet soft hands, making her body tingle a bit at his gentle touch. Emotion after emotion went through her body, and she was soon literally feeling as if she was Kisuke's lover, just as all her friends in the soul society would explain it as. But, nothing in the world could explain how she felt at this exact moment, and she was sure that by now, she was defiantly staying here

"Kisuke...I am so glad you found me."

She said these words in a whisper, as she fell into a deep sleep in Kisuke's lap.

**This chapter was almost impossible to finish, and I bet you guys noticed that is way longer then the others. But, you readers like long chapters anyway…so yeah! **

**Song List (There were many songs mentioned in this chapters, and I thought I better just explain why I put them in here)**

**Miracle by Doping Panda – **This chapter was named after this song. Kiseki means miracle, and well, I guess it would be a good song to listen to when you are reading this chapter.

**Sweety by Clazziquai Project - **A very cute song! The English version of this song defiantly matches, and it is one of the two songs that are the theme of this story.

**You're Not Here by Yamaoko Akira (Sung by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn) – **Basically this is the second theme of this story. Actually, this song helped me think up a lot of the ideas I have been having lately, for the lyrics go so well with Yukino. Anyway, this song is the theme for Heather (Cheryl, whatever you want to call her) from Silent Hill 3, and well I am glad that I found out about it. It is such a good song!

**One more thing though before I leave you guys to the next chapter. If you people don't get the joke why Yukino takes being called Yuki offensively, it is because Yuki is a guy's name, and I think Yukino is the feminine version of that name. Well, anyway, review! I always want reviews…and well, till next chapter!! BAI BAI! **


	7. Chapter 7 Drops of Jupiter

**Okay, I have a million reasons why I have not updated (again!) but, I will not apologize 'til after the chapter! **

**Disclaimer – I do not own Bleach…but if I did, I would make an episode where Aizen would sing Crocodile Rock for the ending them! (Read Bedtime Stories to get this joke) **

**Chapter 7**

**Drops of Jupiter**

Leaning against the wall, a creek could be heard through out the whole housing, echoing off the walls. A loud grumbling of impatience was heard from an empty room, and from what it seemed, the being that it came from was not a happy camper.

"Damn, where the hell is that girl!"

The being (which seemed to be male) punched the wall next to him, literally almost making a hole in the wood, but just barely making a dent. A sharp throb went through his arm, and he grunted slightly in pain knowing what he did was just an act of belligerence.

"Well, you don't have to take it out on the wall, Kyosuke. What it do to you?"

Standing in the open doorway stood a medium sized woman, holding a stack of folded clothes. She had a shihakushou, which seemed a bit big for her, seeing how the cloth was a bit loose. The woman's features were calm, and her blues eyes reflected a sweet aura, which was then greeted by dark brown hair that was tied in a ponytail, and her stance showed that she was not afraid of the man in front of her called Kyosuke, who seemed to have a definite case of a bad temper.

"What do you want, Aine? I don't need you making me even angrier then I already am."

Aine huffed, and soon walked into the room, closing the door behind her. She laid the sheets next to the paper door, baring a Fourth Company bag hanging around her back as she kneeled down. It slide off her back, and landed with a thump on the ground, along with the sound of rolling medicine of some sort. Without hesitation, Kyosuke eyed Aine who soon sat in front of him, staring him straight in the eye.

"So, Kyosuke, why are you so upset that she hasn't returned? She isn't missing or anything…I mean she was assigned-"

"I don't give a damn what she was assigned. You Fourth Company idiots can't go ten feet without screwing something up."

"Oh, and I suppose you Eleventh Company block heads are any better?"

Kyosuke grew silent as he knew that he really shouldn't be ratting on the Fourth Company. Quite frankly, he was pissed at one person and one person only. So, as he thought up something, he got to his feet and walked past Aine, into the hallway.

"I am going to see Unohana-taichou."

Aine watched as he turned his way towards his destination, and his footsteps echoed down the hallway; fading into silence. Sighing, she stood to her feet, picked up the sheets, and walked out of the room as Kyosuke had done. She stood in the middle of the hallway, pondering on what Kyosuke was going to do. Knowing him, Aine couldn't help but feel in the pit of her stomach, that he was going to do something that wasn't going to go according to plan.

Aine looked to her right, and sighed once more, "Kyosuke, please…don't do something stupid, for you never may know how she feels deep inside. You just are too selfish sometimes to even notice…"

xXxXxXxXxXx

"Ha! You can't pass go! In your face!"

The shouten was closed today, and even though it seemed like another boring day, there was always something to do. And well, today, Jinta bribed Yukino to play a game of Monopoly, saying that he was the master of the financial board game. Yukino gladly agreed to his challenge, but to his dismay, he did not know that she was so well at managing money. He was being beaten, and well, now he was in the same boat as the other three that were playing; Kisuke, Tessai, and Ururu. (Yoruichi just scoffed at the thought of the game, and said she would be out for the day)

"Hehe, I am winning! Not to mention I have four hotels on Boardwalk!"

Yukino threw her money into the air, and giggled as it landed all over her. Tessai sighed in defeat, and soon got up walking outside of the room. Ururu sort of put her money down and called it quits knowing that she was losing anyway. Jinta and Kisuke were the only two left.

Well, to put this scene in your head, picture this. Jinta, almost looking like there was a rain cloud forming over his head, and Kisuke sitting, probably crying on the inside how he was still in jail, and was stuck in jail most of the game. Yukino on the other hand…

"Oh –**jump**- I –**jump**- am Monopoly queen! –**jump**-!"

The two 'money and freedom impaired' losers sat at the game board and watched as Yukino skipped around the room merrily. From the looks of it, maybe this was actually the first time she ever won anything, or was good at something. For winning a game of Monopoly wasn't that great of an accomplishment, but to Yukino it must have felt like winning the lottery three times in a row.

Sadly, even though she was so excited, Yukino was always the one to get caught up in the moment. As she skipped down one of the wooden hallways, she forgot that she had waxed the floors earlier, and well she only had socks on her feet…sooo…Yukino basically saw her feet fall in front of her, and the last thing she saw was the cobwebs in the corners of the ceiling.

Kisuke turned his head towards Yukino, and as Jinta looked up, all he saw was just a puff of dust from where Kisuke was once sitting. Around the corner, Jinta could see Kisuke already by her side putting his hand under Yukino's head, probably checking for bleeding. Getting closer, Jinta beamed down at Yukino to find her completely dead cold.

"Haha, Yuki knocked herself out…she is such a klutz."

Kisuke did not scold his slightly rude comment, but just let Jinta walk down the hall to just leave Kisuke to aid Yukino. He picked her up, bridal style, and soon saw Tessai around the corner staring at the two of them.

"I thought I heard something crash…sadly it was poor Yukino-san's skull."

Maybe there was some sense of humor in that sentence, but right at this moment all that mattered was if Yukino was alright or not. From the looks of things, she was perfectly fine, and would probably just need to lay down a while before she would regain consciousness. The problem was…where to put her?

"Tessai-san, don't you think her bed is a bit hard…?"

Tessai looked up at Kisuke, eyeing at what he was getting at. There was a silence, and soon Kisuke just looked up with a crooked smile plastered on his face.

"She can just have my bed for today!"

Tessai thought for a moment Kisuke wasn't taking this seriously, but in a sense I guess he was. Actually, it made more sense than what he would of thought of, knowing that just leaving her on the floor wouldn't do any good.

"Kisuke-san…" He paused, actually contemplated a way not to offend Kisuke, "Kisuke-san, do whatever you think is best."

Without a moments pause, Tessai turned around only to appear again with some ice wrapped in a towel. As Kisuke began to walk towards his room, Tessai opened the door ahead of him, and slowly strutted toward the queen sized feathered mattress that had a green comforter with white pillows which also seemed to match everything else in the 'green-white' environment.

Turning around he waited for Kisuke to place Yukino upon the soft sheets, and as he did so, Tessai slowly put ice in the towel under the pillow case beneath her head.

"Well, that should do for now, Tessai-san. I think I can take it from here."

Tessai nodded, and with large bulky footsteps he walked towards the door closing it with a click behind him. Silence seemed to consume every corner of the room, sending a creepy and lonely feeling through Kisuke as he looked down at the usual lively Yukino lying on his bed. She made no movement except for the slight rise and fall of her chest.

Kisuke glanced to his left, noticing that his bathroom door was open. The slight scene gave him a reminder that he was in dear need of a shower. Since he was planning to take one right around this time today, knowing that he had no room left in the rest of the day, was a problem now, as Yukino was in his room.

Shifting a bit on his feet, he began to chuckle as he thought of some of the reactions and predicaments that could happen in the next few minutes or so if Yukino awoke. He rubbed his scruffy chin, noticing that as well as a shower, his '5 o'clock shadow' was now turning into a beard, showing a sign for a shave.

He sighed, letting his hand flop to his side as he began to walk towards his bathroom door. He removed his haori, which soon ended up on the floor already cluttering the room which seemed awkwardly clean for someone like Kisuke. It wasn't surprising to find that the next item of clothing that he removed (which was his hat) also landed in the same spot. The floor. If it wasn't the fact that Yukino was lying on his bed, unconscious at that, then he would of undressed completely right there. But, at this thought, if Yukino suddenly had a wake up call, and well, if Kisuke was standing there butt naked…well you should know the rest. (**A/N: **What fangirl wouldn't want to wake up to see that? XD)

So, without further thought, he closed that bathroom door, undressed, and hoped into that shower.

xXxXxXxXxXxXx

_Yukino stood in the middle of a giant monopoly board, looking around to see that everything was completely silent. Her feet were upon a spot called 'Boardwalk', which seemed to be towered over by two red buildings. Looking up, she found that these were hotels…plastic hotels. _

"_What the hell? People are so lazy these days…making hotels out of cheap ass plastic."_

_Without another thought, she walked towards the hotels and noticed that she couldn't pick just one. Her facial expression showed a bit of anguish, as she couldn't truly decide on which one to choose. _

"_Do I want this one…the red plastic hotel? Or do I want this one…the other red plastic hotel?"_

_After a few seconds of Inky Binky Bonky, she decided on the one to her right. Opening the front door, she found herself in a huge elegant hotel, with about fifty butlers coming towards her offering her…lint covered pineapples? (__**A/N: **__Inside joke…don't ask.)_

_She passed through the lint covered pineapple servers, only to be greeted by a very tall woman that had blue skin, and a stern expression. "How may I assist you this evening, my young miss?"_

_How was Yukino supposed to answer this? She didn't even know why she entered this hotels in the first place. They were just there, and she just decided on the red plastic hotel on the right instead of the red plastic hotel on the left. _

"_I…I was wondering…"_

_She paused for a second, and heard a slight clatter against the panel of the red plastic roof. She looked up above, to find that it seemed to be raining. For some reason the rain feel through the roof, and feel upon her and the blue woman. The blue woman before her seemed to melt to the ground, as all the blue on her skin melted away, revealing a green layer right beneath. _

"_Um, mam…you do know…?"_

"_Oh yes, don't worry my sweet. It happens all the time. You get used to it."_

A slight ruffle of sheets came from the empty room, and a slight mumble of words were heard. "Happens all…the time…you are…melting away….damn…it….HOLY SHIT SHE MELTED AWAY!"

Sitting straight up, flinging ice everywhere on the bed in the process, Yukino awoke wide eyed at her reaction to a blue woman melting. Breathing hard, she closed her eyes for a few minutes and slowly tried to focus her visions from the slight fast movement. Her legs stretched out in the process, and as she flung them to her side, she noticed something different. Her feet didn't touch the ground.

She looked down at her legs, and under her thighs, she noticed a green bed sheet. With confusion spread across her face, she slightly glanced around her to find herself in a completely different room then before. Jumping off the bed, she slowly walked around to find that on the other side lay a pile of clothing only to be identified as Kisuke's.

"Messy, messy, messy."

It didn't mind her one bit that she awoke in Kisuke's room, knowing that they were probably thinking what was the best for her to put her in a comfy bed. She actually remembered herself slipping, but not the impact of the blow. Figuring this, she guessed that she had fallen, and well, you know the rest. So, doing her job, she stepped over to the pile of clothes, picking the hat up and placing it upon her head, as the haori was flung around her shoulders.

She giggled as she began to twirl around and laugh at herself. Even though she never really thought about it, Kisuke's clothes were mighty comfy, even if it was just a hat and haori. She enjoyed it, and as she stood there, she took in whiffs of Kisuke's scent off the clothing. The scent was seductive, leaving her actually pausing a moment to take a breath of the sweet fragrance.

"I am enjoying him way too much…"

She slightly giggled at this, knowing that everywhere she was going now; she couldn't help but think of him in some way. Her feelings for Kisuke were getting so confusing, that it almost made her sick. Her stomach would leap and jump from emotions she wasn't use to, and could only identify as signs of deep feelings at least.

Sighing a bit, she knew that not even in a million years, could Kisuke actually be that in love with her. Not like she wouldn't like that, but she knew that Kisuke was probably someone who would move on. At this thought, she slightly remembered what Yoruichi had told her a few weeks before.

"Hoping I won't hurt him…hmph. He has a greater chance of hurting me without knowing it. He probably doesn't even truly like me, just acting like it to make me feel better I guess."

Her eyes focused on the haori that consumed her body to her knees. She actually felt like crying at this moment, but as she felt a slight tear forming from the side of her eye, a slight click was heard in front of her. Looking slightly up and then fully up, she saw something of a sight that will be etched into her mind for eternity.

In front of her, was a man, half naked with a towel wrapped around his waist, drying his hair with yet another towel. Her face was pale white, showing shock, but as soon as she saw some strands of blonde hair poke out of the towel on the man's head, she immediately shifted from no color to the darkest red in the world.

At this very moment, her head became clouded with a daze, and her view was beginning to turn into a dark glare. Her side vision was totally blacked out like she was walking down a hallway, and it seemed to be focusing on the sight in front of her. Trying to step forward a bit to get balance, she noticed that now the towel was removed to show Kisuke's full face.

"Oh shit…no…" Yukino cursed again as one thought went running through her head, _HE'S SO HOT! _It was a silence, but Yukino felt like her head was coming up with so many comments about Kisuke at this moment, it felt like a crowd of people were in the room with the two.

Nothing seemed to stop in her head, and everything was becoming confusing. But, that soon changed. Before her, she noticed that Kisuke was moving towards her. He threw the towel onto the bed, and came to her; leaving a slight trail of water behind. Closing her eyes before he was about two inches away, she waited for him to stop, but all she felt was arms wrap around her back.

She didn't notice it, but to this, she reacted by putting her heads on Kisuke's bare back, and feeling the skin on her finger tips. Slightly letting out a gasp of surprise, she fully put her arms around him, and pushed his body closer to hers. Through her clothing she could feel his wet chest making contact with hers slightly, sending sparks flying. Kisuke's chin rested on her shoulder a bit, letting his mouth pour warm breath against her ear, sending slight shivers down her spin.

Leaning her head forward slightly, her forehead was resting against his collarbone, and she was staring at his shadowed skin. It was a moment that seemed to stop time, and she literally couldn't even remember her own name. If Kisuke wasn't there, she would have sworn she would have fallen to the ground, for her legs felt like water bags. She couldn't even feel the ground beneath her, nor could she feel anything below her thighs. All her emotions and feelings were all sucked and consumed into her chest and abdomen, and she actually enjoyed the feeling.

"Don't ever think that of me, Yukino."

A stern, yet quiet voice was heard through her head, and she came back to reality. Her eye glanced to her left, and immediately she saw Kisuke's neck before her. Knowing that she wasn't going to make eye contact, she spoke towards him, with her voice slightly muffled.

"Kisuke….what are you talking about?"

There was a moment of silence, "Yukino, I mean that, I don't want you to ever think of me of a man to fake my feelings."

Yukino's eyes opened wide. It didn't matter that he was eavesdropping on her talking to herself, nothing really mattered at all. She just had one thought going through her head. _He truly…likes me…that way?_

"Kisuke…you mean, you do…?"

Appearing before her eyes were Kisuke's as he seemed to maneuver themselves to a position so their faces were closer together then any friend's faces should be. Without mistaking it, she could actually feel the movement of his lips against hers slightly as he spoke these words, "I am not the man to mess with a women's feelings. Nor am I one to hurt a woman. I am one to love them passionately."

Words echoed through her head as she heard the ending of his sentence. Their eyes were making contact, searching for each others emotions through them. Kisuke could see Yukino's innocence in her blue eyes, as Yukino sensed the slight look of truth in Kisuke's grayish toned ones. A smile slightly spread across Yukino's lips, "So, basically, you do like me…", she paused for a second, and continued, "I…can't believe it."

A look of confusion was spread on Kisuke's face, and he soon replied to her. "Why can't you believe it? Is it that hard not to believe?"

She could feel Kisuke looking concerned, and she felt his lips slightly pull away from hers. The temptation to touch each others lips was beginning to rise, and Yukino was dazed at how to get something like to happen. All she could think of was to just reply to his question, truthfully.

"It is hard to believe…for, no one has actually said anything like this to me. No one has even been this close to me, and I just can't believe that you are the first one to break that barrier. I don't even feel uncomfortable around you, and it just feels right." She stopped for a bit and glanced over, breaking the eye contact. "Sorry if that sounded confusing."

Out of the corner of her eye she could see his lips curl up in a smile, which seemed to relax her a bit. Moving her head towards his again, she leaned toward him waiting for an answer. Kisuke looked down at her, and without any more questions, he moved one of his hands from her back to cup the side of her neck. His thumb gentle rubbed against her jaw, and he slightly moved his head closer to hers again.

"I don't find what you just said confusing at all. It makes complete sense to me. You like me and I like you. We have a connection, and we should continue with it…I knew you were something special." As Yukino stared into his eyes as he spoke, she didn't even notice that his lips were parting before hers. He spoke something under his breath, as he slightly made contact with her pink colored flesh folds.

"I thought it once Yukino and I will think it a million times. You look so damn cute in my clothes, my little bird."

His lips pressed against hers, and Yukino felt a shock of feeling. Her arms rose from his back, and she let her hands wrap around the back of his head as he soon deepened the kiss a bit. As they continued, Yukino only could think of one thought going through her head, and it soon made her giggle a bit. Kisuke stopped and soon looked at her, barely leaving her lips.

"What's so funny?"

She giggled against his lips again, and he could feel the vibrations of her soft voice bounce against his skin slightly. In a whispered tone, and with a smile on her face, she leaned in and spoke, "Would you consider this a good first kiss?"

Kisuke slightly chuckled, but replied to her quickly, talking against her lips again. "I am your first for everything aren't I?"

_I'll take as a yes…and what does he mean by that? _

Yukino seemed to be staring for hours into his eyes, but she soon stopped. Her sense of reality kicked in and she became wide eyed at what she had just done. Her hands went to her side, and she immediately walked slowly away from Kisuke, leaving him a bit confused.

"Kisuke…you…we….oh my gosh…"

She turned around, looking the other way, trying to think of something to say. She began to chew on her fingernails out of nervous habit, and she ranted on and on in her head. She couldn't get past the fact that she just kissed Kisuke, and that he liked her the same way she did him. She closed her eyes tight, trying to clear her mind, only to turn around to find that Kisuke had gotten fully dressed while she was going through her little episode.

Her face became slightly pink, for it defiantly looked ridiculous probably to see a woman of her age acting like that, but you know, it was her first kiss, and it was with Kisuke (who was half naked). How was she going to explain that to her friends? It was coming to her way too fast, and well, she thought she was going to overload from the experience.

"Yukino-chan…are you alright?"

Looking up to find Kisuke looking at her concerned, she blushed as she saw his face and whimpered as she looked the opposite way of him. Her hands were practically in her mouth, as she tried to control her anxious feelings. She felt wonderful, yet scared at the same time, making everything still a blur.

Moments passed, which seemed to be hours, and Kisuke walked up to her side, leaning forward a bit to get a glance of her face.

"You alright?"

Yukino slightly moved her eyes to make contact with his. Closing her eyes for a second, she seemed to relax herself. She opened them when a smile slightly seemed to merge from beneath her hands, and she spoke with a muffled tone.

"We really did kiss didn't we? I wasn't dreaming it right."

Kisuke nodded to her question, "From what I can recall, yes we did."

"And you were half naked weren't you?"

"That was no draft I was feeling."

She slightly giggled at his joke, feeling a spark of relaxation come from it. "Whoa. So now what? Don't people like go to next level with relationships when they kiss or something? Isn't there some rule? Some weird rule about bases or something…"

Kisuke only cocked his head slightly at the end of her sentence. His face looked away from her, but returned with a huge smile on his face. "Well, no point in rushing. For right now, just consider us…close friends?"

"I have close friends that don't kiss me on the lips."

"Okay, I am at lack for better words. What would you call us then?"

Yukino stood, and stared off into the distance thinking of a name to call their new formed relationship. The only thing that sounded good was probably the only thing she could ever think of, and well she decided to go with it.

"How about keeping it simple. Boyfriend and girlfriend sound good?"

Kisuke smiled crookedly, replying in a humorous tone. "Why does the word cliché come to mind?'

"Because it is cliché. Don't mock my lack of better words, too." Yukino paused for a bit, and soon watched as Kisuke stood straight up and stretched.

"Okay fine, boyfriend and girlfriend it is…" Yukino looked over her shoulder as Kisuke inched a bit closer to her, leaving about a foot of space between the two. He leaned forward and placed his head on hers, speaking softly so only she could hear.

"Well, from what I hear, boyfriends and girlfriends usually know some secrets about each other. So, with that said, my little bird, you have some explaining to do later. You promised me, remember?"

Remembering her promise was quite hard, but in her head, she had a feeling that she did say something of what he was getting at. "Well, with THAT said, you also need to explain some things to me."

"How about we make it even. A question, for another question? Sound fair?"

Under his head, she could barely nod, but she somehow was able to. To the answer, Kisuke raised his head, and lightly grabbed Yukino by the edge of 'his' haori.

"Come on now, dinner is about ready."

Nodding towards the words, Yukino walked after him, removing his clothing in the process throwing it in the corner it was originally found.

**Okay. I personally loved this chapter. Hehe, I am sorry, I don't think I am rushing the romance at all, but I absolutely loved this chapter. It is probably one of the greatest one I have ever written in my opinion! Oo Anyway, on a side note…I AM SO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING! You don't want to know how much homework I was assigned, and how much crap I have to do with midterms. I was totally swamped, and had no time at all to do this for I was going everywhere every weekend, and I couldn't get on the computer at all. And now, it is 11:30 at night on Monday. I still have some homework to do, (won't take me long) and I feel totally relieved I finished the chapter… -breath- Okay, please review! Also…I don't know when I am updating next…I will try my best to get it up as fast as I can. But, since I am finally past the hard part, I think everything will be easy street from now on. **

**Song of this Chapter? – Drops of Jupiter by Train (Who hasn't heard this song? Come on! Anyway, no reason why I decided it as the song of this chapter…I guess because it was there?)**


	8. Chapter 8 Kiri

**I keep on singing Sweeney Todd tunes…is that a good or bad thing? Maybe I should pull out a razor and call it my friend or something. Or have a random epiphany and run up to people asking if they need a shave or something? Does anyone know how to make meat pies out of human flesh?!?!? XD **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, but if I did, I would make Ichigo learn how NOT to use bankai in every fight. **

**Chapter 8 **

**Kiri **

Dinner passed as it normally would, except for the random comments of why Yukino's clothes were wet around her chest. Luckily, she wasn't wearing a white shirt, but still, it was a bit awkward. Actually, it was so awkward that Yukino couldn't think of any sort of reply to the question at all. She couldn't spill the beans, and say that Kisuke just got out of the shower, and he decided to embrace her when half naked and still wet. Nor could she say that she 'accidentally' fell in a puddle of water when she was inside all day.

But, without actually answering the question, she left dinner early saying that she wasn't that hungry that evening. No one stopped her, even though Tessai seemed to be staring at Kisuke questionably who was just sipping some tea while staring at himself in the polished floor.

Jinta and Ururu on the other hand didn't seem that suspicious about Yukino, as they both (mostly Jinta) were fighting over the rice bowl. From the looks of things everything was normal; Kisuke was admiring his beautiful new shave in the floor, Jinta making inhuman noises as he fought for the bowl while Ururu was, well, Ururu. Tessai using his evil eye daggers of death towards Kisuke, and flashing them at Yukino who would slightly make a high pitched noise and turn the other way, leaving the room completely.

"Normal…it was almost a normal dinner right?"

Yukino leaned against the wall closest to the shouten entrance as a minute or two passed since she left the dinner table. Her arms crossed across her chest, feeling the slight cold of the wet clothing again. It was almost dry, but now it just kept on reminding her of Kisuke. Kisuke's wet hair, Kisuke's toned chest, Kisuke's slight aroma of lavender soap, Kisuke's slippery warm back. All these thoughts overwhelmed her so much that her stomach felt like butterflies were playing Mortal Kombat while doing Dance Dance Revolution.

Her moment of sweet memories did not last long as she saw light spread slightly across the hallway to her right. The door to the kitchen was reopened from the inside, and out stepped one foot. A small foot that seemed to belong to Ururu, who passed Yukino with a hello and smile slightly spreading across her gloomy face. Jinta soon followed, only he just ran down the hall, not even noticing that he almost stepped on Yukino's foot in the process.

"Whoa…that was a little too close." At her surprise, she jolted up her foot, holding it into the air with her arms. She could never be too careful, but as we all know, almost everything Yukino does, backfires somehow.

Yukino stood still with her leg up, balancing quite well on her one foot. In all of the commotion she forgot to actually put her foot down, but it would be too late now, as a black figure suddenly fell from the ceiling. Yukino didn't recognize the black coat of Yoruichi, so that pretty much left her in another shocked state…on the floor…again.

"Ah, second time today, Yukino. You are a natural klutz."

Yukino's head wobbled to the side, as she sat in the weirdest position on the floor. Her one leg was still being held slightly in the air with her arms, and her other one, was straightened out all the way to her side. It looked as if she was part of some yoga class, but yet a painful, falling down on your bum yoga class. Actually, I wouldn't even consider it in the yoga column of the columns of exercises.

"Hm, I guess you found out about my other knock out blow earlier today, hn?"

Yoruichi nodded to her question, "You also had a very pleasing wake up call."

Yukino stared at Yoruichi with concern, as her statement as she felt embarrassment fall over her. "Wake up call? Yoruichi…you saw…"

Yukino paused in mid sentence as she seemed she wasn't capable of getting the rest of her words out. Yoruichi seemed to spread a smile across her face in amusement, as if she was getting entertainment out of the conversation.

"Yukino, you might as well assume that I saw everything. You can get quite a view up in those ceiling planks."

She chuckled, and Yukino slightly looked up to see that the ceiling boards were basically something that any cat would want to climb on. The problem was that Yoruichi was smarter than most cats, seeing how she was actually a human at that. But, Yukino accepted the fact that well sooner or later Yoruichi was going to find out, and she was a bit glad she did they way she did.

"Yoruichi…are you mad at me about Kisuke still? You know…"

"Mad?" Yoruichi's expression became questionable as she opened her eyes, as she stared at Yukino. "Oh, you must be speaking of that day. Yukino, you are an interesting character indeed. I am not mad, nor would I ever be…"

Yukino listened with great intent of knowing that Yoruichi was going to be even closer to her as a friend. To her, being friendly with everyone always seemed to be best for her, since the ones who didn't seem to get along with her…always seemed to throw her off balance for a lack of better words.

"I am just looking out for Kisuke's well being. Just hoping you aren't making any effigies of him, just to mock him behind his back or anything."

Yoruichi giggled at her sentence, only to wonder if anyone really would make something like that of Kisuke. I mean, he had the reputation to have one, but it was just a wonder who would do such a thing. (Even though it could be humorous.) But, knowing Yukino for who she was, that would be way out of her character. Besides, she was too clumsy to even get one started. She probably end up killing herself somehow.

Yukino smiled a tad as she saw Yoruichi getting ready to move down the hallway towards the kitchen, where her dinner of milk was waiting most likely on the kitchen floor. She didn't want her to leave, but knowing that Yoruichi would probably get testy with her if she stopped her on her way to food might leave her regretting it in the first place.

"See you later then, Yukino. I will be watching every once in a while."

It seemed that she smiled, but Yukino was not sure from the distance. Yoruichi happily pranced into the kitchen, and as she did, Yukino directed her attention onto getting upon her feet again. It was easier then it was getting onto the ground, but more painful. She could feel areas all over herself where she knew bruises would be forming, and she sighed at her lack of balance. It was like a curse that she could not get rid of no matter how many ways she tried.

"I wonder if they have one of those group meetings for klutzes."

Smiling at her own joke, she was now standing straight up again, only to be greeted by yet another.

"Hello, there." It was Kisuke, waving merrily as if he saw nothing previous to the conversation between Yoruichi and Yukino. "You alright there? You seemed to have taken another fall…"

Kisuke leaned forward a bit, checking at Yukino's flesh only to see some red marks from her uncomfortable 'yoga' position that would no doubt go away in the next minute or two. Noticing nothing out of the ordinary from her fall, he grinned, showing all of his teeth, which slightly shinned in the dimmed lighting.

"Well, you seem alright for the moment. Shall we discuss outside?"

Yukino nodded toward his question, slightly in confusion as she totally forgot what she promised to do earlier today. Remembering now, she felt a bit anxious about what kind of questions she would be getting, knowing Kisuke would ask some personal ones with his personality. But, there wasn't much to explain. I mean, everything about her was self explanatory in a sense, that anyone can pretty much read her like a book just by seeing her appearance from a 10-foot distance. It was probably such a trait that it made her appear boring and predictable, but she couldn't change that. It was just something that was always with her, and stuck to her like glue.

There was a back porch like structure in the back that had a railing on the far end away from the doorway. Yukino stepped forward onto the polished wax flooring, now slightly remembering waxing this before. It was peaceful, and as she stood there a slight cold breeze blew in her face.

"Please, sit down, Yukino. We are going to be here a while. We have a lot to talk about."

"We do? But, I thought that," she sat down with a thump, and as she did, she regretting that as she began to rub her bottom, "you pretty much knew everything about me. I am a very predictable person."

Kisuke slightly chuckled at her statement about herself, "True, you may be predictable, but being predictable doesn't mean I know absolutely everything about you. I can't tell someone's personal life just by looking at them. It takes time and questioning."

"So basically, you are going to interrogate me like a criminal?" She slightly grimaced at the thought, knowing that interrogation always seemed to require a bright light and some Sean Connery-ish detective look a like.

"No, nothing like that. You see, I will ask you a question, and then you answer. Truthfully. Then, you ask me something, and I will answer truthfully. Basically, we could just keep on doing this all night, so why not start now? I have nothing planned anyway, and I am sure you aren't going on some expedition either. So, do you want to go first, my little bird?"

Yukino nodded, and right off the bat she thought of a question, "Why the hell do you call me your 'little bird'?"

"Truthfully?" He became wide eyed at the question, and went into a small period of thought. At one point, he chuckled and looked straight into Yukino's eyes with such a look that she swore her heart skipped a beat. "You know, I truthfully don't know. I thought that it would be cute, knowing that you are sort of a little fledging. Can get out of the nest, but yet can't survive on her own. Don't take that as an insult though. I find it cute."

Blushing at the answer, she glanced away a bit in embarrassment, "My, I always get embarrassed…I am such a loser."

Kisuke did not reply to her, but only slightly sat a little closer to her, as if he was going to say something really intimate to her. His hand slightly pushed the door closed; making it even a bit more suspicious that he was making a move on her. Another cold breeze grazed over the two, and as it did, Kisuke looked over to her, opening his mouth to ask away.

"Who are you?"

Yukino looked at him with a look of confusion and another expression that seemed to imply that he already knew. "What kind of question is that? I am Yukino, you know…"

"Shh…" He put up his finger, in that gesture that always goes along with the sound that went through his lips. "What I mean is, not who you are, but who you were. What and who happened in the Soul Society before you appeared here with me. Tell me about friends, life, and family, anything possible so I can know you better."

"Anything to know me better…?" She let out a sigh, and looked back in her head on the life she once had. As thoughts came to her, she spoke of her original in a scattered way, going from friends and then to jobs and then suddenly back to friends again. She explained that in the Soul Society her life was as normal as could be, and she was just a simple girl that lived in the rukon for quite sometime, until she had the determination to go and become a soul reaper.

"Did you have anything determine you to become one?" Kisuke interrupted her, but she soon began to speak again. "Well, there was one thing that I can think of. There once was a boy who I was good friends with who was accepted into the soul academy. Sadly, though he wanted to go so bad, he wanted me to come with, and he begged and begged for the soul academy to accept me. As probably already know, they were regretting every letting me in there for well, I was always the worst in the classes when they did accept me. Sometimes teachers would talk behind my back about how why they even accepted me in the first place. It was quite depressing really."

She paused for a bit, and continued, "I was pretty much…a loser. The only one I could look up to was my friend that I knew from the rukon. He became a part of 11th company before I even became an official soul reaper in 4th company. I repeated many classes, but when I finally passed, they even had a hard time picking a company for me. Well, you know where they sent me, which is defiantly something that I can't be proud of, knowing the reputation of 4th company in the first place."

"It sounds as if this friend of yours didn't think much about what you wanted?"

"Not really. I mean, everyone says we should end up together, or we will. He has said many times to me that he has deep feelings for me, but I have no reply to it. He is just a friend that I accept as a friend and nothing else."

There was a silence, and Kisuke noticed Yukino slowly thinking of her past experiences with her friend. From her facial expression, they weren't the most positive experiences, and they were most likely deep situations that she rather not talk about.

"Well, to get your mind off of that, ask me something. Anything at all."

Yukino looked up at Kisuke, wondering what she would ask the willing Kisuke. "Why do you keep me here?"

Kisuke looked slightly toward the sky, noticing a snowflake beginning to fall. It gracefully landed onto the waxed flooring, and at the contact it immediately melted into water. "I keep you here, for I believe you are something special. I have told you about my hat many times before, but just from instinct I could tell that something was unique about you. And well, I kept you here for you appeal to me. I have formed feelings for you, you could say."

He paused for a bit, and soon chuckled, "That sounded really corny didn't it?"

Yukino smiled and nodded, "Corny, but yet so sweet, Kisuke."

Yet again she blushed, but she ignored it as she moved closer to Kisuke; just enough that she could cuddle up to his side. Kisuke slightly moved his arm, and put it around her shoulders, which then lead to him slightly stroking her arm with the tips of his fingers.

"Do you want to stop now?"

Even though it wasn't even a complete hour of conversation, Yukino felt jumbled up in the head. Fatigue went through her body, and she sighed as a reply. "I never mentioned his name did I?"

"Who's name?"

Yukino slowly moved a bit closer to his warm side as a breeze blew against her; making her shiver a bit. "You remember, the boy I spoke of?"

Kisuke nodded to her, as he remembered now. "As I recall, you never did. Nor did you ever describe him to me."

"Well, to describe him to you, he is just a big hot head. Well, a very tall and serious looking hot head, now that is. He never use to be so strict back in the rukon, but things change. His name though, is Kyosuke."

"Kyosuke, eh? Sounds like a name meant for him."

Yukino nodded, but let her mind wonder away from the subject as she slowly closed her eyes. Her body relaxed as she felt tired from the day, and her breathing became slow and easy. There was no thought in her mind, leaving her in sleeping state in a matter of seconds. Kisuke only smiled when he saw her relaxed face against his chest.

**Took me long enough…but I did it. This chapter was harder then I thought it would be to write, but, I am glad I got it done. I don't know how long it will be again until I update. (Maybe two weeks from now.) I am pretty busy right now. I have had a lot of testing going on lately, and I have been reading a lot as well. I haven't been on the computer much, for I am glued to my Sweeney Todd book that I got over the weekend. Hehe, it is way different then the musical, but I like it…lots! (anything Sweeney Todd I like…wtf?)**

**Translation**

**Kiri - **mist

**I chose this for a title, for it is the name of one of my favorite songs called Kiri by Monoral. If you have ever seen Ergo Proxy, then you have heard it for it is the opening theme. **

**Thanks Goes to All My Reviewers. **

**Till next time, toodles!!!**

**(P.S. This chapter seems rushed to me…but I can't jazz it up anymore than it already is. Sorry for the horrible chapter. Next chapter should be better…)**


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